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landonshaw · 12-01-2013, 16:58

First absolutly no drink was involved and an early night the night before.

January 1, this year, around 4:00PM, we were 5 miles or so off of southern Dominica, coming into Roseau. I looked from the boat, heading south toward land and saw a wave that was breaking. It was one wave and a couple of miles long. Could not really see how long it was.

I thought it would stop, but it kept coming and kept breaking all along its one ridge. I watched this for about a mile and when I decided that it was not going to stop, and it was getting close, maybe 1/4 mile, I headed into it. The single wave was at least 12 feet, maybe 15? We went over it and then it continued. They rest of the waves were around 4 feet. This was very abnormal.

What I am thinking and want to find out is if there was a earthquake in the area that day?
THoughts? Aloisius

delmarrey · 12-01-2013, 17:07

It must have not been too big, It's not on the list yet. >>> List of rogue waves - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DeepFrz · 12-01-2013, 17:13

Google earth will list all the earthquakes in the area.

delmarrey · 12-01-2013, 17:36

There has been some earthquake activity in that area but not on that date. Mostly Jan. 4th.
Link>>> IRIS Seismic Monitor

sloopygirl · 12-01-2013, 17:47

In the Caribbean, between the islands, the winds seem to accelerate around the ends of the islands - thereby causing higher waves than normal. I noticed that on one passage we did when we were about 100 miles from the island chain. We noticed that the seas were building in certain areas and when we plotted the course, the higher seas corresponded with the breaks between the island, even though we were far from land. The islands are high enough to create calm seas quite far west of the land mass, and all that water has to get between the land masses the islands create, thereby making for higher seas. And they will wrap around the islands for a bit.

landonshaw · 13-01-2013, 05:44

Real-time Earthquake Map

If you are interested in earthquakes and how many and where there are, look at this from USGS

Cormorant · 13-01-2013, 05:59

Submarine landslides can cause waves like that. They're usually, but not always, triggered by seismic activity.

mikereed100 · 13-01-2013, 06:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by landonshaw

First absolutly no drink was involved and an early night the night before.

January 1, this year, around 4:00PM, we were 5 miles or so off of southern Dominica, coming into Roseau. I looked from the boat, heading south toward land and saw a wave that was breaking. It was one wave and a couple of miles long. Could not really see how long it was.

I thought it would stop, but it kept coming and kept breaking all along its one ridge. I watched this for about a mile and when I decided that it was not going to stop, and it was getting close, maybe 1/4 mile, I headed into it. The single wave was at least 12 feet, maybe 15? We went over it and then it continued. They rest of the waves were around 4 feet. This was very abnormal.

What I am thinking and want to find out is if there was a earthquake in the area that day?
THoughts? Aloisius

This reminds me of a similar incident mentioned on CF several years ago (couldn't find the post) in which a commercial fisherman encountered such a wave but larger off the coast of Southern California. Was this wave traveling in the same direction as the other waves?

foggysail · 13-01-2013, 07:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Google earth will list all the earthquakes in the area.

I was not aware of that, thanks

Foggy

landonshaw · 13-01-2013, 07:37

The wave was generally traveling in the same direction as the other waves. Roseau is in the soutern part of Dominic. Fairly close to the end of the island, maybe 8 to 10 miles. The wave was coming from the land out to sea. I was about 5 miles out and picked it up about 1 1/2 miles east of me. At first I thought it was a local boat wake, but then saw no boat and watched as it got closer. Happily I headed into it, it would have been very wet had it hit the side of the boat.

Andrew Troup · 13-01-2013, 12:36

Submarine landslide was my thought also, as I can't think of any other plausible explanation, especially since land was in the way for it to be a freak coincidence of a number of underlying wavetrains coinciding at a peak. Furthermore, you would expect other waves building up to and decaying from that highest individual wave, if it was a question of summation.Landslides on dry land can happen in the absence of seismic activity, indeed they usually do, so I see no reason to doubt Cormorant's assertion that this is also possible for underwater landslides.

Andrew Troup · 13-01-2013, 12:40

An 8.8m racing sailboat was pitchpoled near here some years back while motoring in a flat calm at sea, but near a peninsula, in about 15m -20m depth. A single wave. In this case, travelling from offshore.