Question - 90 ft. rogue wave in GOM with Ivan?

[Terry]

The other day I heard in a news story re oil prices that indicated that one of the oil rigs in GOM estimated a 90 foot wave as Ivan passed. I remember the various buoy readings of very large waves, but was wondering if there has been other evidence of such a huge wave.

[CFL]

I'm not certain about the 90 ft wave. I know I heard slightly before landfall that a 50 ft wave had been spotted, and I think the damage to the I10 East bridge is evidence of that. Good question, though. I hope someone else will post with more info . . .

[Droop12]

Well, I know the bouy south of Dauphin Island reported 52.5 foot waves and then stopped working. I saw pictures of the damage to some oil platforms and officials estimated the waves to be between 40-70 feet. Thats all I know and I can say 40-70 feet was a good estimate, 90 might be pushing it though. Anybody have anymore info then I do? Please share.

[Terry]

Rogue waves are an interesting phenomenon. I remember hearing of an int'l study of them, but I don't remember the web site. Sailors are very aware of these giants of the sea and there is a strong belief that these rogue waves have been responsible for many large ship sinkings and damage.

A ninety foot wave is quite a sight to picture. Yikes.

[~SirCane]

Unreal! That's all I can say about Ivan.

[Stratosphere747]

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish ... waves.html


Very unique but they do happen....

[Terry]

Thanks for the link, Stratosphere747. That was the article I'd previously read, but lost. I've read plenty of first-hand accounts of sailing vessels encountering huge rogues, but I find the possibility of a 90 footer in the GOM truly facinating.

[Aslkahuna]

A 90 footer in the GOM is not out of the question considering how high some of the reported wave heights were. Some years ago, the QE2 took a 98 footer green over the bow off the New England coast and the US Navy has documented a rogue over 32m (100 ft) high.

Steve

[HurricaneBill]

A 90 footer in the GOM is not out of the question considering how high some of the reported wave heights were. Some years ago, the QE2 took a 98 footer green over the bow off the New England coast and the US Navy has documented a rogue over 32m (100 ft) high.

Steve

The QE2 wave was during Hurricane Luis in 1995. Fortunately, most of the passengers were in their rooms because of the stormy weather. I think only one person suffered a minor injury due to the wave.

[Matthew5]

I was watching the discovery channel, or something like that. A while ago. They said that the perfect storm, might have had waves over 200 feet tall.

[weatherwindow]

bouys are reporting the "significant wave height" which is the average of the highest one-third of the waves sampled....so a 52 ft significant wave height could produce a 10% chance of a 100ft wave

[weatherwindow]

another possibility is the convergence of intersecting wave trains producing an occasional phenomenal wave

[CharleySurvivor]

That would be something cool to see with my own eyes...only from a plane thus.

[bbadon]

I work in the oil and gas industry on the GOM and the wave estimate was determined by damage caused to an oil platform that could not have been caused by wind. The damage was on a deck some 90 ft from the mean water level. Therefore the 90' estimate.