A killer wave is targeting ships worldwide: could it have split the tanker "Volgoneft-212" in half? Check out the photos and videos.

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The tanker "Volgoneft-212," which broke into two parts.

On December 15, 2024, the tanker "Volgoneft-212" snapped in half while riding the crest of a wave during a storm raging in the Kerch Strait. However, meteorologists reported that the height of the waves did not exceed 2-3 meters. It's doubtful that such small "irregularities" could have caused the disaster.

There is a strong suspicion that the hull of the tanker broke due to a so-called rogue wave, also known as a killer wave or monster wave. For some mysterious reason, these "walls of water" suddenly rise to two, three, or even four times the height of surrounding waves. They are particularly high in the vast and deep ocean waters, but, as has recently been discovered, they can also occur in seas—essentially in small enclosed and relatively shallow bodies of water.

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Diagram of a record wave in the Pacific Ocean.

Record-High Wave

In light of the disaster in the Kerch Strait, people are recalling the wave that reached a height of 17.6 meters, recorded by a buoy deployed by the research company MarineLabs in the Pacific Ocean, about 7 kilometers off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The monstrous water wall was named Ucluelet, after the coastline.

This wave surged in November 2020, but it took two years for scientists to confirm that the phenomenon was not a figment of imagination.

- The wave appeared like a hump the height of a four-story building, with dips visible in front of it, - reported Scott Beatty, head of MarineLabs, to CNN.

- In open sea, waves of such proportions occur once every 1300 years, - commented the results by research leader Johannes Gemmrich from the University of Victoria.

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The record wave was three times higher than the surrounding waves.

By the way, the Ucluelet wave is not the highest ever recorded in the world’s oceans. It holds the record for relative height. The waves that rolled in front and behind it were about three times lower—around 6 meters.

The absolute height record belongs to the Draupner Wave, which measured 25.6 meters. It was recorded in January 1995 in the North Sea off the coast of Norway, where the maximum height of surrounding waves was 12 meters. In other words, they were approximately half as tall.

Moreover, official records and scientific confirmations have elevated these anomalous and fearsome natural phenomena from maritime myths and legends to facts, compelling further study. There was a time—well into the 20th century—when scientists did not believe in "rogue waves," despite numerous testimonies and even documentary photographs.

Today, scientists are ready to accept that waves of up to 50 meters can be expected in the vast ocean.

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Comparison of normal waves with anomalous waves: 1. Supertanker measuring 458 meters. 2. Regular storm wave. 3. Rogue wave. 4. Average-height person.

Where Do They Come From?

The height of "normal waves" depends on wind strength, how long it blows, and the area of open water. For instance, a hurricane with a force of 12 on the Beaufort scale, which is exceedingly rare, can generate waves with an average height of 4.2 meters in just one hour over a vast water expanse measuring 17,700 kilometers from Panama to Malaysia (Pacific Ocean).

Further calculations show that over a day, waves can rise to 14.1 meters, but ultimately, even over a week, they won't exceed 20.7 meters. However, images from space occasionally reveal gigantic water waves that do not fit the calculated parameters. Their height exceeds 25 meters. Some appear in rows of three, four, or even five and travel thousands of kilometers without dissipating. Others suddenly rise and just as suddenly vanish without a trace.

To explain this phenomenon, scientists employ advanced mathematics—such as nonlinear Schrödinger equations. It is believed that these extremely high waves form due to a process known as dispersion focusing, where a traveling wave begins to absorb energy from neighboring waves. The result is not entirely smooth, forgive the unintended pun.

Equations describing chaotic processes, akin to those that shake global financial markets, do not help either.

Physicists blame currents. Giant waves are indeed often encountered where winds slow down fast oceanic flows. Could this create a sort of dam? Or, as winds weaken, do they "release" the water, which then surges forth in monstrous waves? Such a mechanism is not ruled out. However, it does not explain the appearance of wandering giants where there are no currents at all.

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A wave modeled by British and Australian physicists (right) surprisingly resembled the wave from Hokusai's engraving "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" (left).

It is possible that the unique topography of the ocean floor contributes to the overlay of one wave onto another.

Scientists with unconventional views suggest that "local gravitational fluctuations" occur in certain ocean areas. In simpler terms, the force of gravity suddenly decreases or increases, creating a dip or a hump.

Perhaps the closest to understanding the processes leading to the emergence of "walls of water" are the British and Australian physicists. They managed to "generate" rogue waves in the lab—in a specialized pool. Of course, the modeled waves were not 20-30 meters high, as in nature, but in relative height, they corresponded well to the "originals."

The experimenters hypothesized that the crests of gigantic water waves "bulge" as a result of the interaction of two smaller waves that meet at an angle greater than 60 degrees. During modeling, the tallest single waves occurred when the angle was 120 degrees.

According to the scientists, who reported their findings in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, waves of significant height can also form in relatively small bodies of water—even in lakes under the right conditions. When two small waves meet at a large angle, they can combine to form one large wave—at least twice as high as the individual waves.

This leads to the conclusion that at the entrance to the Black Sea, among 2-3 meter waves, a rogue wave could have formed, measuring between 4 and 9 meters, which the tanker encountered and subsequently broke apart.

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A wave photographed by Philippe Lijour.

By the Way

Like a Nightmare

- It was stormy, but not severely, - recounted Philippe Lijour, the first mate of the oil tanker "Esso Languedoc." - Suddenly, a massive wave appeared from the stern, towering over all the others. It engulfed the entire ship, even the masts disappeared beneath the water.

The tanker remained afloat. Its crew was lucky. And while the water rushed across the deck, Philippe managed to grab his camera and capture the retreating wave. By his estimates, the wave rose at least 30 meters. This happened in 1980, east of the South African coast.

On the morning of February 7, 1933, a 34-meter wave, the height of a 12-story building, struck the US Navy ship "Ramapo," which was en route from Manila to San Diego. The duty officer managed to estimate.

Thanks to satellite observations, it was possible to verify the "horrific tales" that emerged in 2001. Passengers on the cruise ships "Bremen" and "Caledonia Star" reported that their vessels had entered a trough between gigantic waves. For a time, they sailed alongside water walls that towered above the highest decks. The horizon disappeared from view. Experts retrieved archived images taken by satellites in 2001. There were indeed waves!

Not everyone escaped with merely nightmarish memories. According to experts, in the last quarter-century, encounters with rogue waves have tragically ended for more than 200 vessels. This includes cruise ships and over two dozen massive "unsinkable" super