Waves can cause significant damage, especially during extreme weather events. The most damaging types of waves are often associated with hurricanes, tsunamis, storm surges, and even rogue waves. Determining the “most damaging” wave is difficult, as many factors influence wave impacts. However, examining characteristics like wave height, speed, and energy can provide insight into particularly destructive waves.
What factors influence a wave’s potential for damage?
The primary factors that determine a wave’s damage potential are:
- Wave height – Taller waves have more energy and volume of water to impact the shoreline and structures.
- Wave speed – Faster moving waves can apply greater forces when breaking.
- Wave energy – Waves carry energy proportional to the square of their height and period. Higher energy waves can cause more erosion and damage.
- Wave direction – Waves hitting shore straight on perpendicular to the beach cause more damage than waves arriving at an angle.
- Water depth – Waves break and dissipate energy when reaching shallow water near shore. In deep water, their energy remains concentrated.
In addition, local factors like shoreline shape, offshore bathymetry, and built structures influence how waves impact an area. Storm conditions like high winds can also increase wave impacts.
How are hurricane waves damaging?
Hurricanes produce extremely damaging high waves through strong winds blowing over large areas of ocean. The largest waves form when sustained winds blow in the same direction as the wave travel. Some features of damaging hurricane waves include:
- Wave heights up to 50 feet or more in extreme storms like hurricanes Katrina and Mitch.
- Wave periods of up to 20 seconds, allowing more energy to be concentrated.
- Storm surge elevating coastal water levels and enabling waves to extend further inland.
- Large waves maintaining strength as they approach shore due to deep offshore waters.
- Pounding waves attacking from the dominant wind direction for an extended duration.
In addition to coastal flooding from storm surge, hurricane waves can cause severe beach erosion, damage to structures near the coast, and loss of protective dunes and vegetation. Hurricane Katrina produced a catastrophic coastal storm surge amplified by wave action.
What are characteristics of destructive tsunami waves?
Tsunamis are a series of enormous waves formed by displacement of water by underwater earthquakes, landslides, or volcanic eruptions. Tsunami waves have unique characteristics that contribute to their destructiveness:
- Wave heights ranging from just a few feet up to around 100 feet in extreme historic tsunamis.
- Extremely long wavelengths of up to 100 miles, allowing them to propagate at high speeds.
- Velocities up to 500 mph – enabling transoceanic propagation and little warning time.
- Incredible wave energy with the ability to travel inland significant distances.
- Oscillation between crests and troughs every 5 to 60 minutes for hours.
While wind-driven waves only affect coastal areas, tsunamis can devastate shorelines thousands of miles away from their origin. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was one of the most catastrophic, killing over 230,000 people across 14 countries.
What makes storm surge waves so destructive?
Storm surges are rises in coastal water levels caused by storm winds pushing water onshore. Surges enable waves to extend farther inland and attack elevated shorelines. Destructive characteristics include:
- Surges up to 20 feet or more, increasing wave heights and energy.
- Surge combined with normal tides creating even higher water levels.
- Erosion of beaches and dunes that otherwise protect coastal property.
- Waves riding atop the surge attacking structures and infrastructure.
- Extensive inland flooding when surges overtop shorelines and barriers.
Storm surge magnified the devastating effects of waves during Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. Low-lying areas are especially vulnerable to storm surge flooding.
How can rogue waves cause damage?
Rogue waves, also called freak or killer waves, are isolated surface waves over twice the size of surrounding waves. They occur unpredictably and can be extremely dangerous:
- Wave heights up to 100 feet have been measured in rogue waves.
- Formation in deep water with little warning before striking ships.
- Caused by constructive interference of swells or diffracted waves.
- Scientifically controversial but hundreds of eyewitness accounts.
- Responsible for many lost ships and structural damage.
While rogue waves are rare, they illustrate the potential maximum damage possible from curved walls of water. A rogue wave snapped a oil platform in half off the coast of Norway in 1995.
How can sound waves cause damage?
Intense sound waves, though not damaging in the same way as water waves, can still cause harm:
- Sound pressure levels over 185 dB can rupture eardrums.
- Resonance with organs can shatter glass and rupture organs.
- Infrasound below 20 Hz can resonate with structures.
- Strong low frequency sound can vibrate and weaken structures.
- Used in directed energy weapons to deter personnel.
While not as spectacularly destructive as water waves, high powered sound waves have been developed into weapons designed to disrupt and disorient targets.
How do seismic waves cause damage in earthquakes?
Seismic waves radiating outward from earthquakes through the ground can be extremely damaging:
- P and S waves cause shearing and compression damage to structures.
- Surface waves concentrate destruction near the surface.
- Liquefaction transforms sediments into liquid, damaging foundations.
- Landslides and avalanches triggered by seismic shaking.
- Catastrophic damage in areas near the epicenter.
The seismic waves traveling through the earth’s crust during an earthquake are responsible for widespread damage to infrastructure during major quakes.
Which wave causes the most damage on average?
While all the wave types discussed can cause immense damage in extreme events, normal wind-driven ocean waves likely cause the most damage worldwide on a regular basis. Features contributing to extensive routine damage include:
- Constant presence always affecting coastlines.
- Cumulative erosion and flooding effects over time.
- Annual damage from storms amplified by waves.
- Billions in costs for coastal defenses like seawalls.
- Beach destruction and loss of protective dunes.
Though not as dramatic as tsunamis or rogue waves, persistent, repetitive damage from ocean wind waves represents the bulk of wave damage globally each year.
What are the most deadly waves?
Some wave phenomena have proven particularly deadly to human life:
- Storm surges – Responsible for most U.S. hurricane deaths by drowning.
- Tsunamis – Over 420,000 deaths from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami alone.
- Limnic eruptions – Waves displacing suffocating volcanic gases killed 1,700 people at Lake Nyos in 1986.
- Branxton flood wave – 30-foot wall of coal sediment claimed 16 lives in England in 1846.
- Glacial lake outburst floods – Rapid glacier lake releases triggering enormous waves with destructive power.
Storm surges and tsunamis stand out for their immense catastrophic tolls on human life throughout history.
What wave scaled caused the most deaths?
The deadliest wave incidents in history with over 10,000 lives lost include:
| Event | Type of Wave | Estimated Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami | Tsunami | 227,898 |
| 1887 Yellow River Flood, China | Flood wave | Up to 2,000,000 |
| 1938 Yellow River Flood, China | Flood wave | 500,000 to 1,000,000 |
| 1976 Tangshan Earthquake | Seismic waves | 242,419 |
| 1970 Bhola Cyclone Storm Surge, Bangladesh | Storm surge | 300,000 to 500,000 |
Storm surges and tsunamis stand out as the deadliest wave phenomena, though seismic waves and flood waves have also claimed enormous numbers of lives.
What are the costliest waves in history?
Waves resulting from major weather events dominate the list of most expensive wave disasters:
| Event | Type of Wave | Damage Costs |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane Katrina, 2005 | Storm surge and waves | $125 billion |
| Hurricane Harvey, 2017 | Storm surge | $125 billion |
| Hurricane Maria, 2017 | Storm surge and waves | $102.2 billion |
| Hurricane Sandy, 2012 | Storm surge and waves | $81.9 billion |
| Hurricane Irma, 2017 | Storm surge and waves | $79.2 billion |
Storm surge events amplified by waves account for all 5 of the most expensive wave disasters in U.S. history, with Hurricane Katrina on top.
What are the tallest tsunami waves on record?
Observations of record-breaking tsunami wave heights include:
- 1958 Lituya Bay, Alaska – 1,720 feet
- 2011 Tohoku, Japan – 133 feet onshore, estimated 115 feet offshore
- 1952 Kamchatka, Russia – 130 feet
- 1792 Unimak Island, Alaska – 120 feet
- 1896 Sanriku, Japan – 115 feet
The 1,720 foot wave in Lituya Bay is considered the tallest tsunami ever documented. It was caused by a landslide triggered by an earthquake.
What are the tallest rogue waves by measurement?
Instrument measurements of freak rogue wave heights include:
- North Sea (1995) – 92.6 feet
- Norway Sea (2001) – 95 feet
- Bay of Biscay (2003) – 86 feet
- North Sea (2004) – 98 feet
- Adriatic Sea (2019) – 92 feet
The largest rogue waves approach or exceed 100 feet in height. Eyewitness accounts describe even taller possible rogues exceeding 170 feet.
What are the longest recorded wavelengths?
Some documented cases of waves with exceptionally long wavelengths include:
- 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami – 350-390 miles
- 2019 tsunami near Indonesia – 62 miles
- Internal waves in 2013 in Luzon Strait – 124 miles
- Atmospheric gravity waves in upper atmosphere – 620 miles
- Waves accompanying the 1883 Krakatoa eruption – 232 miles
Tsunamis stand out for their extremely long wavelengths, enabling propagation at remarkable speeds with great destructive potential.
Conclusion
Many types of waves including tsunamis, storm surges, and seismic waves have the potential for immense destructive power and loss of life. Overall, persistent ocean wind waves likely cause the most cumulative damage worldwide on a regular basis. But in single catastrophic events, storm surges amplified by waves and far-reaching tsunamis stand out as the most damaging due to their sheer height and energy.
While all these waves share ability to cause destruction, their physics vary widely – winds drive ocean surface waves and swells, seismic shaking generates earthquake waves, and displacements of water or air create tsunamis and limnic eruptions. Understanding the diversity of waves provides insight into harnessing their power and mitigating their damage.
