© Captain Roger Wilson, NOAA National Weather Service CollectionRogue wave reaching a height of 60-foot plus hit a tanker headed south from Valdez, Alaska, in February 1993. The ship was running in about 25-foot seas when a monster wave struck it broadside on the starboard side.
In 1995, an 84-foot wall of water pummeled an offshore oil rig in the North Sea. This massive wave wasn't a tsunami triggered by an earthquake - it was the first documented occurrence of a "rogue wave."
Rogue waves are enormous waves that occur far out at sea seemingly in isolation and without an obvious cause. They have been plaguing sailors since the advent of seafaring, yet it wasn't until monitoring equipment on the rig captured the telltale data that scientists could confirm that freak waves, as they're also known, were not just the product of a sea-soaked imagination.
But in the years since then, the study of rogue waves has yielded as many questions as answers. Scientists have examined the wave patterns to look for clues as to how this seemingly random phenomenon could occur.
New research suggests that atmospheric pressure may play a role.
"Maybe this isn't just a wave problem, which is how we've been looking at this for the past decade," said Tim Janssen, associate professor of oceanography at San Francisco State University, who was not involved with the study. "This time, let's step out of the box and say maybe there's atmospheric variation going on."
