How Do Some Waves Get SO Big?

All over the world, giant wave breaks appear because of underwater geology that supercharges their wave energy.

LEARN MORE
**************
To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
Amplitude - The distance between the crest and trough of a wave.
Bathymetry - The measurement of depth of water in oceans, seas, or lakes.
Nazaré Canyon - An undersea canyon just off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest submarine canyon in Europe, reaching depths of about 5,000 meters (16,000 ft) deep and a length of about 230 kilometers (140 mi).
Plunging Breaker - Occurs when there are rapid depth changes. The crest of the wave becomes very steep, and the rear of the wave violently plunges over the front.
Reef Break - A location where waves break over a reef, often amplifying them.
Spilling Breaker - Occurs when the seafloor slopes gradually. As the wave becomes unstable, energy is dissipated by water spilling over the crest of the wave.
Swell - a slow, regular movement of the sea in rolling waves that do not break.
Wave period - The time between waves.

SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH
**************************
If you like what we do, you can help us!:
- Share this video with your friends and family
- Leave us a comment (we read them!)

CREDITS
*********
Cameron Duke | Script Writer
Kate Yoshida | Narrator
David Goldenberg | Director
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing, and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

OUR STAFF
************
Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia Rius
David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez
Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich
Peter Reich • Ever Salazar • Kate Yoshida

OUR LINKS
************

REFERENCES
**************

Pinet, P. R. (2009). Invitation to oceanography (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

[ChiolasPT]

I'm portuguese and this is the first time in 30 years I've seen Nazaré's Cannon clearly explained

[somewinner]

The face reveal has shattered my assumption that this entire channel was run by stick figures

[NetAndyCz]

Surprisingly, some waves become really huge even at open sea.

[GeeTransit]

surfer: waving to me :)
me on the tenth floor: *confused screaming*

[MacheB]

My thought when seeing the video’s title: -“The dangers of giant waves.”
The feeling when watching the video: -“Cowabunga!”

[Bigfoot_With_Internet_Access]

This is why we bigfoots just stay in the woods and avoid the ocean, those waves can get pretty big

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Ocean Man determines the size of his waves
But when he’s angry, he’ll form a tsunami

[MrMe-xvqr]

Watson sleeping at the end just makes it so much more wholesome

[biginfluencer]

Usually I just watch these because it’s fun but this time I actually feel like I’ve learned something :)

[onalennasehume]

I love Minute Earth. Complex topics explained so eloquently

[Hauketal]

Great info about coastal waves. But hugely unknown until recently, there are also monster waves in the open ocean. Up to 30m were measured from oil platforms. They are created by overlaying smaller waves with different speeds.

[gildedbear]

THANK YOU for giving a little bit of info on how Mova globes work! So cool!

[josephelmes]

I'm a PhD researcher in the UK looking at simple mathematical models on internal-tide generation along canyons. Lovely video! :)

[benmathews]

This is the kind of info I'll never have a need to use but will love to share one day 😂

[micaelgarcia]

Huh, this is very interesting and something I always wondered; Thanks!

[Psychol-Snooper]

I've seen video of unspeakable Portuguese waves for years, and just last night was wondering why they exist.

Synchronicity!

[ImranZakhaev]

I designed a rubble mound breakwater for our engineering capstone project, and its so cool to actually understand this completely! Hydraulic engineering is awesome!

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

what did one ocean say to the other ocean?
Nothing, they just WAVED
Can you SEA what i did there? I’m SHORE you did. Why are you so SALTY about my puns? Don’t be a BEACH

[ya]

Was expecting Nazaré being mentioned and was not disappointed!

[MrPhungCS]

I usually don't care about sponsor and just skip that segment but that Mova globe is actually so interesting, I will have to find some way to have it shipped to my country though.
Also, great video as always.