- The disappearance of more than 200 supertankers and
container
ships during the past 20 years has been blamed by scientists on monster
waves of up to 36 metres.
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- A team of oceanographers at the Technical University
in Berlin re-created in a tank the gigantic "one-off" seas that
are capable of breaking a 180m-long ship in half.
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- "Even in the tank the effect was
awe-inspiring,"
said the research leader, Gunther Clauss. "The exploding wave was
so powerful that it broke through the ceiling of the building in which
the tank is located."
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- Using a computerised, hydraulically powered wave-making
machine, Professor Clauss's team established that the monster waves could
occur with little or no warning.
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- He said slow-moving waves were caught up by a succession
of faster waves travelling at more than twice their speed.
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- "What happens then is that the waves simply pile
up on top of each other to create a monster. The result is an almost
vertical
wall of water which towers up to 36m in height before collapsing on itself.
Any vessel caught by one of these has little chance of
surviving."
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- Monster waves have provided material for countless novels
and films, including Sebastian Junger's recent best-seller The Perfect
Storm.
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- Yet accounts by seamen who have witnessed such waves
are comparatively rare. One, dating from 1995, was when the QE2 was hit
by a hurricane on a crossing to New York. It survived what was estimated
to be a 30m wave which the ship took directly over its bow.
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- Professor Clauss said his team's research would help
naval architects construct ships and oil platforms capable of withstanding
such wave forces.
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- http://www.smh.com.au
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