Incredible images shot off Alaska. A boat is hit crossed by a rogue wave and loses its propulsion for a while. The rogue waves are very high, sudden, oceanic waves generally considered as very rare, although this rarity seems to be relative.

In spite of the numerous testimonies reported by seafarers over the centuries, and the encounter of these waves by large modern ships, the existence of the rogued waves was the object of doubts until the middle of the twentieth century in the absence of objective measures.

I took until the measurements made by a British weather frigate of such a wave at nearly 20m and the analysis of this event by the oceanographer Laurence Draper to accept this rogue or freak wave phenomenon....

From a technical point of view, we speak of rogue wave for heights from the wave trough to the wave crest of more than 2.1 times the significant height of waves. The rogue waves are described as brutal amounts of water that are difficult for a boat to easily cross unlike in the case of a regular wave which slopes relatively smoothly.

Such waves have been observed in all the oceans of the world whether those have large surface currents or not. The circumstances pushing to the appearance of rogue waves are still little known, but it seems that certain circumstances are causing not the diminution, but the accumulation of the swell waves generating thus favourable circumstances for a rogue wave.

=> VIDEO - un bateau frappé en direct par une vague scélérate