Killer Waves in Nature

Rogue Waves:

Firstly, let us learn about some big waves in general. These are often called “Rogue Waves”. Look at the following website to answer the following questions on Rogue Waves..

Rogue Waves in Alaska

Explain two ways that rogue waves can be produced

Explain what wave action is responsible for producing rogue waves

Describe how the height of the rogue waves is related to the individual waves

Explain how the height of the rogue wave is related to the wind speed. If the wind speed increased from 40 knots to 60 knots write down what you would predict the wave height for the rogue wave to increase by.

Monster rogue waves are surprisingly common. They have caused many super tankers to be sunk. Look at these images to see the awesome force of these killer waves.

Now look at these websites to learn about how many super tanker ships have been sunk by the deadly rogue waves.

Monster waves surprisingly common

Seas awash with Monster waves

Tsunamis:

Tsunamis are a special type of wave that is often initiated many kilometres from the coastline. Thousands of lives have been lost by the ‘killer waves’ generated by Tsunamis.
Look at the following website to obtain information to answer the questions below on Tsunamis.

Tsunamis - A Deadly Force

This website provdes an animation showing how Tsunamis are produced

How Tsunamis occur

Describe what are Tsunamis and how they are produced

Explain what would happen if an asteroid three miles across hit the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

On the open ocean how fast do Tsunamis travel? How far can they travel?

How large are the Tsunami waves in the open ocean? Explain what happens to the Tsunami’s wave height and speed as it approaches the shoreline. Why?

Explain how Tsunamis and earthquakes are related.

Explain what various governments are doing to understand and predict Tsunamis? What is a seismometer and how can it be used in relation to Tsunamis?

Finally, here is a link to a web site giving you details of the Tsunami that occurred on December 26th 2004. The site contains details and an animation.

The Tsunami that hit Indonesia in December 2004

Learn about the awesome power and destructiveness of the Tsunami. Many lives were lost and millions of people were left homeless. The energy of this Tsunami was more than 1000 times the power of the biggest nuclear weapon ever detonated!!

Reflect on your research findings. Write some conclusions that you would use if you were a scientist working on studying Tsunami behavior. If you were the government what would you do to plan for the possible event of a Tsunami? What would be your recommendations?