How Do Some Waves Get SO Big?

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

LEARN MORE
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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.

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REFERENCES
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Babanin, A. V., Rogers, W. E., de Camargo, R., Doble, M., Durrant, T., Filchuk, K., Ewans, K., Hemer, M., Janssen, T., Kelly-Gerreyn, B., Machutchon, K., McComb, P., Qiao, F., Schulz, E., Skvortsov, A., Thomson, J., Vichi, M., Violante-Carvalho, N., Wang, D., & Waseda, T. (2019). Waves and Swells in High Wind and Extreme Fetches, Measurements in the Southern Ocean. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00361

Editor At Surfertoday.com. (2013, November 5). The canyon that makes waves. Surfertoday; SurferToday.com | The Ultimate Surfing News Website. Retrieved from: https://www.surfertoday.com/su....rfing/the-canyon-tha

Griffiths, L. S., & Porter, R. (2012). Focusing of surface waves by variable bathymetry. Applied Ocean Research, 34, 150–163. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2011.08.004

Inman, D. (2021). Living with Coastal Change - Coastal Basics - Wave Refraction Model - Jaws, Hawaii. Ucsd.edu. Retrieved from: http://coastalchange.ucsd.edu/....st3_basics/p_waveref

Keating, S. (2020, January 6). The story of a wave: from wind-blown ripples to breaking on the beach. The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/th....e-story-of-a-wave-fr

Pedro Proença Cunha, & Margarida, M. (2015, February). The Nazaré coast, the submarine canyon and the giant waves - a synthesis. ResearchGate; Universidade de Coimbra. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/p....ublication/275522569

Pinet, P. R. (2009). Invitation to oceanography (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
The generation and propagation of ocean waves and swell. I. Wave periods and velocities | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. (2017). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Retrieved from: https://royalsocietypublishing.....org/doi/10.1098/rst

Warner, S. (2020). What makes the world’s biggest surfable waves? The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/wh....at-makes-the-worlds-

Warner, S. (2021). Department of Environmental Studies, Brandeis University. Personal Communication. Homepage: https://www.brandeis.edu/facul....tyguide/person.html?