By Devin Powell
Freak waves that swallow ships whole have been re-created in a tank of water. Though these tiny terrors are only centimeters high, a devilishly difficult mathematical equation describing their shape may help to explain the origins of massive rogue waves at sea..
Sailors have long swapped stories about walls of water leaping up in the open ocean — even in calm water — without warning or obvious cause. But for centuries, rogue waves were little more than talk; no one had ever measured one with scientific instruments.
Then on New Year’s Eve of 1995, a laser on an oil rig off Norway’s coast recorded one of these rare events: a wave 26 meters from bottom to top, flanked by deep troughs on either side.