Freak monster waves spotted from space

"Sailors often whisper of monster waves when ships sink mysteriously but, until now, no one quite believed them. "

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk The shady phenomenon of freak waves as tall as 10 storey buildings has finally been proved, the European Space Agency (Esa) said on Wednesday. Sailors often whisper of monster waves when ships sink mysteriously but, until now, no one quite believed them. As part of a project called MaxWave - which was set up to test the rumours - two Esa satellites surveyed the oceans. During a three week period they detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high. Strange disappearances Over the last two decades more than 200 super-carriers - cargo ships over 200m long - have been lost at sea. Eyewitness reports suggest many were sunk by high and violent walls of water that rose up out of calm seas. But for years these tales of towering beasts were written off as fantasy; and many marine scientists clung to statistical models stating monstrous deviations from the normal sea state occur once every 1,000 years. clipped from www.copytaste.com