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149-618: During the spring and fall semesters, up to 600 undergraduates participate in the 100- to 110-day program. During the semester the ship circumnavigates the globe, traveling from North America east (across the Atlantic ) or west (across the Pacific ) and visiting 10 to 11 countries in Asia , Africa , Europe , South America , and North America . Although the program had voyages through the Mediterranean and

298-469: A laser rangefinder wave recorder on the platform's underside. At 3 pm on 1 January 1995, the device recorded a rogue wave with a maximum wave height of 25.6 m (84 ft). Peak elevation above still water level was 18.5 m (61 ft). The reading was confirmed by the other sensors. The platform sustained minor damage in the event. In the area, the SWH at the time was about 12 m (39 ft), so

447-550: A writing system , built huge pyramids and temples , had a complex calendar , and developed the concept of zero around 400 CE. The first recorded European references to North America are in Norse sagas where it is referred to as Vinland . The earliest verifiable instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact by any European culture with the North America mainland has been dated to around 1000 CE. The site , situated at

596-510: A "normal" wave begins to draw energy from other nearby waves, and briefly becomes very large. Such phenomena are not limited to water and are also studied in liquid helium, nonlinear optics, and microwave cavities. A 2012 study reported that in addition to the Peregrine soliton reaching up to about three times the height of the surrounding sea, a hierarchy of higher order wave solutions could also exist having progressively larger sizes and demonstrated

745-623: A 1993 hiking accident, and five students were killed in a bus crash during a field trip in India in spring 1996. The spring 1994 voyage (on the SS Universe ) ended in Hong Kong because the ship was scheduled for dry-dock maintenance after the voyage. However, the ship was unable to adhere to its sailing schedule during the semester due to mechanical difficulties. It made several unscheduled stops, and had to anchor between ports while repairs were made. The ship

894-456: A 29 m (95 ft) wave off the coast of Scotland near Rockall . This was a scientific research vessel fitted with high-quality instruments. Subsequent analysis determined that under severe gale-force conditions with wind speeds averaging 21 metres per second (41 kn), a ship-borne wave recorder measured individual waves up to 29.1 m (95.5 ft) from crest to trough, and a maximum SWH of 18.5 m (60.7 ft). These were some of

1043-585: A U.S. State Department worldwide travel advisory. All students were required to disembark from the World Odyssey between March 14 and March 16, were provided with resources to help them travel home, and completed the academic program remotely from March 17 to April 20. On May 12, 2020, Semester at Sea announced that the Fall 2020 voyage would not be sailing as planned because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The modified itinerary

1192-559: A University of Wisconsin student was struck and killed by a drunk driver in Hong Kong. The spring and fall 2009 itineraries were altered to avoid Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden . During the fall 2010 voyage, a University of California, Santa Barbara student died while the ship was docked in Ho Chi Minh City. The spring 2011 itinerary was changed after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , and

1341-785: A breaking wave of 15 t/m , a rogue wave can dwarf both of these figures with a breaking force far exceeding 100 t/m . Smith presented calculations using the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) Common Structural Rules for a typical bulk carrier. Peter Challenor, a scientist from the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom, was quoted in Casey 's book in 2010 as saying: "We don’t have that random messy theory for nonlinear waves. At all." He added, "People have been working actively on this for

1490-422: A fully nonlinear model by R. H. Gibbs (2005) brings this mode into question, as it is shown that a typical wave group focuses in such a way as to produce a significant wall of water at the cost of a reduced height. A rogue wave, and the deep trough commonly seen before and after it, may last only for some minutes before either breaking or reducing in size again. Apart from a single one, the rogue wave may be part of

1639-557: A limited selection of notable incidents. The loss of the MS ; München in 1978 provided some of the first physical evidence of the existence of rogue waves. München was a state-of-the-art cargo ship with multiple water-tight compartments and an expert crew. She was lost with all crew, and the wreck has never been found. The only evidence found was the starboard lifeboat recovered from floating wreckage sometime later. The lifeboats hung from forward and aft blocks 20 m (66 ft) above

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1788-457: A massive displacement of water, often resulting from sudden movements of the ocean floor , after which they propagate at high speed over a wide area. They are nearly unnoticeable in deep water and only become dangerous as they approach the shoreline and the ocean floor becomes shallower; therefore, tsunamis do not present a threat to shipping at sea (e.g., the only ships lost in the 2004 Asian tsunami were in port.). These are also different from

1937-516: A one-day fuel stop in Malaysia on February 19, the World Odyssey attempted to reroute to Victoria, Seychelles , with an expected arrival on February 27 and departure on March 1. But the evening before arrival, the Seychellois government denied the vessel entry. The World Odyssey then headed south to Mauritius, and docked on February 29. The ship spent one day in port, followed by two days at sea around

2086-591: A paper in 2000, collating evidence that freak waves were not the rare realizations of a typical or slightly non-gaussian sea surface population ( classical extreme waves) but were the typical realizations of a rare and strongly non-gaussian sea surface population of waves ( freak extreme waves). A workshop of leading researchers in the world attended the first Rogue Waves 2000 workshop held in Brest in November 2000. In 2000, British oceanographic vessel RRS Discovery recorded

2235-648: A period of mountain building called the Laramide orogeny , between 80 and 55 mya. The formation of the Isthmus of Panama that connected the continent to South America arguably occurred approximately 12 to 15 mya, and the Great Lakes (as well as many other northern freshwater lakes and rivers) were carved by receding glaciers about 10,000 years ago. North America is the source of much of what humanity knows about geologic time periods. The geographic area that would later become

2384-571: A powerful earthquake killed seven people in 2009. Volcanic eruptions are common in the region. In 1968, the Arenal Volcano , in Costa Rica, erupted and killed 87 people. Fertile soils from weathered volcanic lavas have made it possible to sustain dense populations in agriculturally productive highland areas. Central America has many mountain ranges ; the longest are the Sierra Madre de Chiapas ,

2533-470: A recorded maximum wave height of 25.6 m (84 ft) and peak elevation of 18.5 m (61 ft). During that event, minor damage was inflicted on the platform far above sea level, confirming the accuracy of the wave-height reading made by a downwards pointing laser sensor. The existence of rogue waves has since been confirmed by video and photographs, satellite imagery , radar of the ocean surface, stereo wave imaging systems, pressure transducers on

2682-469: A report of an 11-metre (36 ft) wave in a significant wave height of 1.9 metres (6 ft 3 in), but the authors cast doubt on that claim. A paper written by Craig B. Smith in 2007 reported on an incident in the North Atlantic, in which the submarine Grouper was hit by a 30-meter wave in calm seas. Because the phenomenon of rogue waves is still a matter of active research, clearly stating what

2831-502: A scientific model (and also ship design method) to describe the waves encountered did not exist. This finding was widely reported in the press, which reported that "according to all of the theoretical models at the time under this particular set of weather conditions, waves of this size should not have existed". In 2004, the ESA MaxWave project identified more than 10 individual giant waves above 25 m (82 ft) in height during

2980-510: A short phase of relative order". In 2019, researchers succeeded in producing a wave with similar characteristics to the Draupner wave (steepness and breaking), and proportionately greater height, using multiple wavetrains meeting at an angle of 120°. Previous research had strongly suggested that the wave resulted from an interaction between waves from different directions ("crossing seas"). Their research also highlighted that wave-breaking behavior

3129-488: A short survey period of three weeks in a limited area of the South Atlantic. By 2007, it was further proven via satellite radar studies that waves with crest-to-trough heights of 20 to 30 m (66 to 98 ft) occur far more frequently than previously thought. Rogue waves are now known to occur in all of the world's oceans many times each day. Rogue waves are now accepted as a common phenomenon. Professor Akhmediev of

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3278-467: A single large wave. Recent research suggests sea state crest-trough correlation leading to linear superposition may be a dominant factor in predicting the frequency of rogue waves. Among other causes, studies of nonlinear waves such as the Peregrine soliton , and waves modeled by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS), suggest that modulational instability can create an unusual sea state where

3427-540: A variety of reactions, including curiosity, trading, cooperation, resignation, and resistance. The indigenous population declined substantially following European arrival, primarily due to the introduction of Eurasian diseases, such as smallpox , to which the indigenous peoples lacked immunity, and because of violent conflicts with Europeans. Indigenous culture changed significantly and their affiliation with political and cultural groups also changed. Several linguistic groups died out , and others changed quite quickly. On

3576-492: A wave packet consisting of a few rogue waves. Such rogue wave groups have been observed in nature. A number of research programmes are currently underway or have concluded whose focus is/was on rogue waves, including: Researchers at UCLA observed rogue-wave phenomena in microstructured optical fibers near the threshold of soliton supercontinuum generation and characterized the initial conditions for generating rogue waves in any medium. Research in optics has pointed out

3725-528: Is a natural ocean phenomenon that is not caused by land movement, only lasts briefly, occurs in a limited location, and most often happens far out at sea. Rogue waves are considered rare, but potentially very dangerous, since they can involve the spontaneous formation of massive waves far beyond the usual expectations of ship designers , and can overwhelm the usual capabilities of ocean-going vessels which are not designed for such encounters. Rogue waves are, therefore, distinct from tsunamis . Tsunamis are caused by

3874-568: Is a rogue hole recording from an oil platform in the North Sea, revealed in Kharif et al. The same source also reveals a recording of what is known as the 'Three Sisters'. Rogue waves are waves in open water that are much larger than surrounding waves. More precisely, rogue waves have a height which is more than twice the significant wave height ( H s or SWH). They can be caused when currents or winds cause waves to travel at different speeds, and

4023-640: Is a very large continent that extends from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Tropic of Cancer . Greenland, along with the Canadian Shield , is tundra with average temperatures ranging from 10 to 20 °C (50 to 68 °F), but central Greenland is composed of a very large ice sheet. This tundra radiates throughout Canada, but its border ends near the Rocky Mountains (but still contains Alaska) and at

4172-511: Is an ancient craton which forms the geologic core of North America; it formed between 1.5 and 1.0 billion years ago during the Proterozoic eon. The Canadian Shield is the largest exposure of this craton. From the Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic eras, North America was joined with the other modern-day continents as part of the supercontinent Pangaea , with Eurasia to its east. One of

4321-666: Is exposed to the Atlantic Ocean. The peak pressure recorded by a shore-mounted transducer was 745 kPa (7.45 bar; 108.1 psi). This pressure far exceeds almost any design criteria for modern ships, and this wave would have destroyed almost any merchant vessel. In November 1997, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted new rules covering survivability and structural requirements for bulk carriers of 150 m (490 ft) and upwards. The bulkhead and double bottom must be strong enough to allow

4470-454: Is in effect 20 m (66 ft) of seawater (possibly a super rogue wave) flowing over the vessel. The deck cargo hatches on the Derbyshire were determined to be the key point of failure when the rogue wave washed over the ship. The design of the hatches only allowed for a static pressure less than 2 m (6.6 ft) of water or 17.1 kPa (0.171 bar; 2.48 psi), meaning that

4619-535: Is in present-day Panama at the Darien Gap on the Colombia -Panama border, placing almost all of Panama within North America. Alternatively, some geologists physiographically locate its southern limit at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec , Mexico, with Central America extending southeastward to South America from this point. The Caribbean islands, or West Indies, are considered part of North America. The continental coastline

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4768-584: Is long and irregular. The Gulf of Mexico is the largest body of water indenting the continent, followed by Hudson Bay . Others include the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Gulf of California . Before the Central American isthmus formed, the region had been underwater. The islands of the West Indies delineate a submerged former land bridge , which had connected North and South America via what are now Florida and Venezuela . There are several islands off

4917-548: Is part of North America geographically. In a geologic sense, Bermuda is not part of the Americas, but an oceanic island that was formed on the fissure of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge over 100 million years ago (mya). The nearest landmass to it is Cape Hatteras , North Carolina . However, Bermuda is often thought of as part of North America, especially given its historical, political and cultural ties to Virginia and other parts of

5066-544: Is sufficient pressure to lead to brittle fracture of mild steel. Evidence of failure by this mechanism was also found on the Derbyshire . Smith documented scenarios where hydrodynamic pressure up to 5,650 kPa (56.5 bar; 819 psi) or over 500 metric tonnes/m could occur. In 2004, an extreme wave was recorded impacting the Alderney Breakwater, Alderney , in the Channel Islands . This breakwater

5215-686: Is the Morrison Formation of the western U.S. Canada is geologically one of the oldest regions in the world, with more than half of the region consisting of Precambrian rocks that have been above sea level since the beginning of the Palaeozoic era. Canada's mineral resources are diverse and extensive. Across the Canadian Shield and in the north there are large iron, nickel, zinc , copper, gold, lead, molybdenum , and uranium reserves. Large diamond concentrations have been recently developed in

5364-516: Is the humid subtropical climate . This area has the wettest cities in the contiguous U.S. , with annual precipitation reaching 67 in (1,700 mm) in Mobile, Alabama . Stretching from the borders of the humid continental and subtropical climates, and going west to the Sierra Nevada , south to the southern tip of Durango , north to the border with tundra climate, the steppe / desert climates are

5513-590: The Ocean Ranger , a semisubmersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. In 2007, the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) compiled a catalogue of more than 50 historical incidents probably associated with rogue waves. In 1826, French scientist and naval officer Jules Dumont d'Urville reported waves as high as 33 m (108 ft) in

5662-705: The Americas at least 20,000 years ago, but various evidence points to possibly earlier dates. The Paleo-Indian period in North America followed the Last Glacial Period, and lasted until about 10,000 years ago when the Archaic period began. The classic stage followed the Archaic period, and lasted from approximately the 6th to 13th centuries. Beginning in 1000 AD, the Norse were the first Europeans to begin exploring and ultimately colonizing areas of North America. In 1492,

5811-546: The Australian National University has stated that 10 rogue waves exist in the world's oceans at any moment. Some researchers have speculated that roughly three of every 10,000 waves on the oceans achieve rogue status, yet in certain spots ‍ — such as coastal inlets and river mouths ‍ — these extreme waves can make up three of every 1,000 waves, because wave energy can be focused. Rogue waves may also occur in lakes . A phenomenon known as

5960-551: The Bering Strait during the Early-Middle Holocene . Prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists in North America, the natives of North America were divided into many different polities, ranging from small bands of a few families to large empires. They lived in several culture areas , which roughly correspond to geographic and biological zones that defined the representative cultures and lifestyles of

6109-739: The Black Sea in 2004 which was far more extreme than the Ucluelet wave, where the Datawell Waverider buoy reported a wave whose height was 10.32 metres (33.86 ft) higher and 3.91 times the significant wave height, as detailed in the paper. Thorough inspection of the buoy after the recording revealed no malfunction. The authors of the paper that reported the Black Sea event assessed the wave as "anomalous" and suggested several theories on how such an extreme wave may have arisen. The Black Sea event differs in

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6258-576: The British Columbia Coast , Western Canada , and Northern Canada . In the U.S., they include New England , the Mid-Atlantic , South Atlantic states , East North Central states , West North Central states , East South Central states , West South Central states , Mountain states , and Pacific states . The Great Lakes region and the Pacific Northwest include areas in both Canada and

6407-644: The COVID-19 pandemic . The students, faculty, staff, and Lifelong Learners aboard the MV World Odyssey were rerouted to Vietnam for an extra week to make up for lost time in China. The World Odyssey left Kobe as scheduled on January 28, arriving in Ho Chi Minh City on February 4. The ship left Ho Chi Minh City three hours late. The original itinerary had the World Odyssey stopping in Malaysia from February 19 to 24 before heading to India from February 29 to March 5. After

6556-863: The Caribbean Plate , whereas the Juan de Fuca Plate and Cocos Plate border the North American Plate on its western frontier. The continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many subregions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic ; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains , the Great Basin , California , and Alaska ;

6705-553: The Cordillera Isabelia , and the Cordillera de Talamanca . Between the mountain ranges lie fertile valleys that are suitable for the people; in fact, most of the population of Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala live in valleys. Valleys are also suitable for the production of coffee, beans, and other crops. The indigenous peoples of the Americas have many creation myths , based on which they assert that they have been present on

6854-474: The Derbyshire with the emerging science on freak waves, concluding that the Derbyshire was almost certainly destroyed by a rogue wave. Work by sailor and author Craig B. Smith in 2007 confirmed prior forensic work by Faulkner in 1998 and determined that the Derbyshire was exposed to a hydrostatic pressure of a "static head" of water of about 20 m (66 ft) with a resultant static pressure of 201 kilopascals (2.01 bar; 29.2 psi). This

7003-498: The Earth 's land area and 4.8% of its total surface area. It is the third-largest continent by size after Asia and Africa , and the fourth-largest continent by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe . As of 2021 , North America's population was estimated as over 592 million people in 23 independent states , or about 7.5% of the world's population. In human geography , the terms "North America" and "North American" can refer to Canada,

7152-459: The East Coast to eastern North Dakota , and stretching down to Kansas , is the humid continental climate featuring intense seasons, with a large amount of annual precipitation, with places like New York City averaging 50 in (1,300 mm). Starting at the southern border of the humid continental climate and stretching to the Gulf of Mexico (whilst encompassing the eastern half of Texas)

7301-608: The Inuit of the high Arctic arrived in North America much later than other native groups, evidenced by the disappearance of Dorset culture artifacts from the archaeological record and their replacement by the Thule people . During the thousands of years of native habitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. One of the oldest yet discovered is the Clovis culture (c. 9550–9050 BCE) in modern New Mexico . Later groups include

7450-694: The Mississippian culture and related Mound building cultures, found in the Mississippi River valley and the Pueblo culture of what is now the Four Corners . The more southern cultural groups of North America were responsible for the domestication of many common crops now used around the world, such as tomatoes, squash , and maize . As a result of the development of agriculture in the south, many other cultural advances were made there. The Mayans developed

7599-642: The Netherlands . The fall 2019 itinerary included the Netherlands, Poland , the Kiel Canal , Portugal , Spain , Croatia , Morocco, Ghana, Brazil , Trinidad and Tobago , the Panama Canal , Ecuador and Costa Rica . The Summer of 2012 voyage aboard the MV Explorer included Spain , Italy , Croatia , Greece , Turkey , Morocco , and Portugal . Denmark was a port of call in summer 2008, Namibia in fall 2008, Bulgaria in summer 2009 and Senegal in fall 2015 (the program's first visits to those countries). Semester at Sea had one summer voyage in 1996. The ship left from Ensenada, Mexico and spent two months in

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7748-538: The SS Atlantic ), the SS  Universe Explorer and the MV  Explorer . The SS Seawise University (formerly the RMS Queen Elizabeth ), which SaS intended to use, burned and sank in 1972 in Hong Kong Harbour during her conversion into a floating campus. The Universe Explorer , which retired in 2005, had four main decks and a small swimming pool at the stern of the ship. The Seawise University , Universe , and Universe Explorer were supplied and managed by Tung Chao Yung 's Seawise Foundation. Concerns about

7897-420: The first official name given to Mexico. North America includes several regions and subregions, each of which have their own respective cultural, economic, and geographic regions. Economic regions include several regions formalized in 20th- and 21st-century trade agreements, including NAFTA between Canada , Mexico , and the United States , and CAFTA between Central America , the Dominican Republic , and

8046-402: The significant wave height (SWH). In a storm sea with an SWH of 12 m (39 ft), the model suggests hardly ever would a wave higher than 15 m (49 ft) occur. It suggests one of 30 m (98 ft) could indeed happen, but only once in 10,000 years. This basic assumption was well accepted, though acknowledged to be an approximation. Using a Gaussian form to model waves has been

8195-475: The "Three Sisters" is said to occur in Lake Superior when a series of three large waves forms. The second wave hits the ship's deck before the first wave clears. The third incoming wave adds to the two accumulated backwashes and suddenly overloads the ship deck with large amounts of water. The phenomenon is one of various theorized causes of the sinking of the SS  Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in November 1975. A 2012 study reported that in addition to

8344-401: The 1490s, building cities, putting the resident indigenous populations to work, raising crops for Spanish settlers and panning gold to enrich the Spaniards. Much of the indigenous population died due to disease and overwork, spurring the Spaniards on to claim new lands and peoples. An expedition under the command of Spanish settler, Hernán Cortés , sailed westward in 1519 to what turned out to be

8493-400: The 20th century, "people who encountered 100-foot [30 m] rogue waves generally weren't coming back to tell people about it." Unusual waves have been studied scientifically for many years (for example, John Scott Russell 's wave of translation , an 1834 study of a soliton wave). Still, these were not linked conceptually to sailors' stories of encounters with giant rogue ocean waves, as

8642-462: The Arctic, making Canada one of the world's largest producers. Throughout the Shield, there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and best known, is Sudbury , Ontario. Sudbury is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the Shield since there is significant evidence that the Sudbury Basin is an ancient meteorite impact crater . The nearby, but less-known Temagami Magnetic Anomaly has striking similarities to

8791-478: The Caribbean islands. France took the western half of Hispaniola and developed Saint-Domingue as a cane sugar producing colony worked by black slave labor. Britain took Barbados and Jamaica , and the Dutch and Danes took islands previously claimed by Spain. Britain did not begin settling on the North American mainland until a hundred years after the first Spanish settlements, since it sought first to control nearby Ireland . The first permanent English settlement

8940-418: The Cod fish", in reference to the abundance of cod fish on the East Coast . Waldseemüller used the Latin version of Vespucci's name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form of "America", following the examples of "Europa", "Asia", and "Africa". Americus originated from Medieval Latin Emericus (see Saint Emeric of Hungary ), coming from the Old High German name Emmerich . Map makers later extended

9089-419: The Draupner wave was more than twice as tall and steep as its neighbors, with characteristics that fell outside any known wave model. The wave caused enormous interest in the scientific community. Following the evidence of the Draupner wave, research in the area became widespread. The first scientific study to comprehensively prove that freak waves exist, which are clearly outside the range of Gaussian waves,

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9238-711: The Draupner wave was recorded in 1995, early research had already made significant strides in understanding extreme wave interactions. In 1979, Dik Ludikhuize and Henk Jan Verhagen at TU Delft successfully generated cross-swell waves in a wave basin. Although only monochromatic waves could be produced at the time, their findings, reported in 1981, showed that individual wave heights could be added together even when exceeding breaker criteria. This phenomenon provided early evidence that waves could grow significantly larger than anticipated by conventional theories of wave breaking. This work highlighted that in cases of crossing waves, wave steepness could increase beyond usual limits. Although

9387-400: The Indian Ocean with three colleagues as witnesses, yet he was publicly ridiculed by fellow scientist François Arago . In that era, the thought was widely held that no wave could exceed 9 m (30 ft). Author Susan Casey wrote that much of that disbelief came because there were very few people who had seen a rogue wave and survived ; until the advent of steel double-hulled ships of

9536-490: The MV Explorer docked in Taiwan . During the fall 2012 voyage, a University of Virginia student died in a recreational-boating accident while the ship was docked in Roseau , Dominica . The fall 2014 voyage was rerouted from Senegal and Ghana to Italy and Spain due to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and State Department warnings about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa , and later voyages were also rescheduled. The MS World Odyssey 's fall 2015 trip

9685-477: The Maritime Court investigation concluded that the severe weather had somehow created an "unusual event" that had led to the sinking of the München . In 1980, the MV Derbyshire was lost during Typhoon Orchid south of Japan, along with all of her crew. The Derbyshire was an ore-bulk oil combination carrier built in 1976. At 91,655 gross register tons, she was ‍ — and remains to be ‍ — the largest British ship ever lost at sea. The wreck

9834-419: The North America's southeastern coast, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León , who had accompanied Columbus's second voyage, visited and named in 1513 La Florida . As the colonial period unfolded, Spain, England, and France appropriated and claimed extensive territories in North America eastern and southern coastlines. Spain established permanent settlements on the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and Cuba in

9983-408: The Peregrine soliton reaching up to about 3 times the height of the surrounding sea, a hierarchy of higher order wave solutions could also exist having progressively larger sizes, and demonstrated the creation of a "super rogue wave"—  a breather around 5 times higher than surrounding waves ‍ — in a water tank . Also in 2012, researchers at the Australian National University proved

10132-399: The South Pacific, stopping in Papeete, Tahiti; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Suva, Fiji; Apia, Western Samoa; and Hilo, Hawaii before ending the voyage in Seattle, Washington. North America North America is a continent in the Northern and Western Hemispheres . North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean , to the east by the Atlantic Ocean , to

10281-416: The Sudbury Basin. Its magnetic anomalies are very similar to the Sudbury Basin, and so it could be a second metal-rich impact crater. The Shield is also covered by vast boreal forests that support an important logging industry. The United States can be divided into twelve main geological provinces: Each province has its own geologic history and unique features. The geology of Alaska is typical of that of

10430-414: The Suez Canal to Egypt, Turkey, Croatia, and Spain, the ship's captain decided to reroute due to threats to ships in the Suez region; the voyage instead stopped in Kenya, South Africa, and Brazil. After the September 11 attacks , the Universe Explorer was redirected after its stop in Kobe . The planned route, from Penang and the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal to ports in Egypt and Croatia ,

10579-470: The Suez Canal, piracy concerns in the Gulf of Aden have changed a typical voyage to around Africa. The program was founded in 1963 and is managed by the Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE). ISE had hosted a summer, 65-day Semester at Sea program that focused on one region of the world. In May 2011, SaS introduced a 26-day Maymester voyage with a curriculum based around the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals . The Maymester voyage offered students

10728-522: The U.S. North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere , the Americas, or simply America, which, in many countries, is considered a single continent with North America a subcontinent . North America is the third-largest continent by area after Asia and Africa . North America's only land connection to South America

10877-554: The Ucluelet wave. In the paper, they infer that in 2006 a 21-metre (69 ft) wave appeared in the Pacific Ocean off the Port of Coos Bay , Oregon, with a significant wave height of 3.9 metres (13 ft). The ratio is 5.38, almost twice that of the Ucluelet wave. The paper also reveals the MV ; Pont-Aven incident as marginally more extreme than the Ucluelet event. The paper also assesses

11026-484: The United States has been the source of more varieties of dinosaurs than any other modern country. According to paleontologist Peter Dodson, this is primarily due to stratigraphy, climate and geography, human resources, and history. Much of the Mesozoic Era is represented by exposed outcrops in the many arid regions of the continent. The most significant Late Jurassic dinosaur-bearing fossil deposit in North America

11175-598: The United States, Mexico, and Greenland or, alternatively, Canada, Greenland and the US (Mexico being classified as part of Latin America ) or simply Canada and the US (Greenland being classified as either Arctic or European (due to its political status as a part of Denmark) and Mexico classified as Latin American). It is unknown with certainty how and when first human populations first reached North America. People were known to live in

11324-605: The United States, and Mexico. France , Italy , Portugal , Spain , Romania , Greece , and the countries of Latin America use a six-continent model , with the Americas viewed as a single continent and North America designating a subcontinent comprising Canada , the United States , Mexico, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon (politically part of France), and often including Greenland and Bermuda . North America has historically been known by other names, including Spanish North America, New Spain , and América Septentrional,

11473-575: The United States. North America is divided linguistically and culturally into two primary regions, Anglo-America and Latin America . Anglo-America includes most of North America, Belize , and Caribbean islands with English -speaking populations. There are also regions, including Louisiana and Quebec , with large Francophone populations; in Quebec , French is the official language. . The southern portion of North America includes Central America and non-English speaking Caribbean nations. The north of

11622-686: The University of Pittsburgh ended its 24-year academic sponsorship of the program, citing safety concerns. 2005's summer voyage was rerouted from London to Le Havre due to safety concerns after the July 7 London bombings . During the fall 2006 voyage, Typhoon Shanshan caused the MV Explorer (en route from Japan to Qingdao, China ) to be rerouted to Hong Kong. The summer 2008 voyage was rerouted from Istanbul to Alexandria due to bomb threats in Turkey. That fall,

11771-537: The area had shifted to the Aztec Empire , whose capital city Tenochtitlan was located further north in the Valley of Mexico . The Aztecs were conquered in 1521 by Hernán Cortés . During the so-called Age of Discovery , Europeans explored overseas and staked claims to various parts of North America, much of which was already settled by indigenous peoples. Upon Europeans' arrival in the " New World ", indigenous peoples had

11920-432: The continent maintains recognized regions as well. In contrast to the common definition of North America, which encompasses the whole North American continent, the term "North America" is sometimes used more narrowly to refer only to four nations, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and the U.S. The U.S. Census Bureau includes Saint Pierre and Miquelon, but excludes Mexico from its definition. The term Northern America refers to

12069-919: The continent's coasts; principally, the Arctic Archipelago, the Bahamas , Turks and Caicos , the Greater and Lesser Antilles , the Aleutian Islands (some of which are in the Eastern Hemisphere proper), the Alexander Archipelago , the many thousand islands of the British Columbia Coast, and Newfoundland. Greenland , a self-governing Danish island, and the world's largest , is on the same tectonic plate (the North American Plate ) and

12218-578: The continent. The vast majority of North America is on the North American Plate. Parts of western Mexico, including Baja California, and of California , including the cities of San Diego , Los Angeles , and Santa Cruz , lie on the eastern edge of the Pacific Plate , with the two plates meeting along the San Andreas Fault . The southernmost portion of the continent and much of the West Indies lie on

12367-654: The cordillera, while the major islands of Hawaii consist of Neogene volcanics erupted over a hot spot . Central America is geologically active with volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occurring from time to time. In 1976 Guatemala was hit by a major earthquake , killing 23,000 people; Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, was devastated by earthquakes in 1931 and 1972, the last one killing about 5,000 people; three earthquakes devastated El Salvador, one in 1986 and two in 2001; one earthquake devastated northern and central Costa Rica in 2009, killing at least 34 people; in Honduras

12516-494: The countries on the itinerary, while the ship is at sea. All students are required to take an interdisciplinary, core global-studies course. Although Colorado State University is the program's academic sponsor, Semester at Sea is open to students from any university. Faculty members are drawn from colleges and universities throughout the United States and around the world. No classes are taught in port, and students can take Semester at Sea-sponsored trips or travel independently in

12665-432: The creation of a "super rogue wave" (a breather around five times higher than surrounding waves) in a water-wave tank . A 2012 study supported the existence of oceanic rogue holes, the inverse of rogue waves, where the depth of the hole can reach more than twice the significant wave height. Although it is often claimed that rogue holes have never been observed in nature despite replication in wave tank experiments, there

12814-669: The cultures of the region commonly reflect Western traditions . However, relatively small parts of North America in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America have indigenous populations that continue adhering to their respective pre-European colonial cultural and linguistic traditions. The Americas were named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann . Vespucci explored South America between 1497 and 1502, and

12963-557: The driest in the U.S. Highland climates cut from north to south of the continent, where subtropical or temperate climates occur just below the tropics, as in central Mexico and Guatemala . Tropical climates appear in the island regions and in the subcontinent's bottleneck, found in countries and states bathed by the Caribbean Sea or to the south of the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean . Precipitation patterns vary across

13112-463: The end of the Canadian Shield, near the Great Lakes . Climate west of the Cascade Range is described as being temperate weather with average precipitation 20 inches (510 millimeters). Climate in coastal California is described to be Mediterranean , with average temperatures in cities like San Francisco ranging from 57 to 70 °F (14 to 21 °C) over the course of the year. Stretching from

13261-590: The existence of "rogue wave holes", an inverted profile of a rogue wave. Their research created rogue wave holes on the water surface in a water-wave tank. In maritime folklore , stories of rogue holes are as common as stories of rogue waves. They had followed from theoretical analysis but had never been proven experimentally. "Rogue wave" has become a near-universal term used by scientists to describe isolated, large-amplitude waves that occur more frequently than expected for normal, Gaussian-distributed, statistical events. Rogue waves appear ubiquitous and are not limited to

13410-476: The existence of all waves that have been detected, several different mechanisms are likely, with localized variation. Suggested mechanisms for freak waves include: The spatiotemporal focusing seen in the NLS equation can also occur when the non-linearity is removed. In this case, focusing is primarily due to different waves coming into phase rather than any energy-transfer processes. Further analysis of rogue waves using

13559-589: The exploratory voyages of Christopher Columbus led to a transatlantic exchange , including migrations of European settlers during the Age of Discovery and the early modern period . Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples , enslaved Africans , immigrants from Europe, Asia, and descendants of these respective groups. Europe's colonization in North America led to most North Americans speaking European languages, such as English , Spanish , and French , and

13708-425: The fact that it, unlike the Ucluelet wave, was recorded with a high-precision instrument. The Oceanic rogue waves paper also reports even more extreme waves from a different source, but these were possibly overestimated, as assessed by the data's own authors. The Black Sea wave occurred in relatively calm weather. Furthermore, a paper by I. Nikolkina and I. Didenkulova also reveals waves more extreme than

13857-544: The first American inhabitants sailed from Beringia some 13,000 years ago, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the Last Glacial Period , in what is known as the Late Glacial Maximum , around 12,500 years ago. The oldest petroglyphs in North America date from 15,000 to 10,000 years before present. Genetic research and anthropology indicate additional waves of migration from Asia via

14006-489: The formation of near-vertical jets". On 17 November 2020, a buoy moored in 45 metres (148 ft) of water on Amphitrite Bank in the Pacific Ocean 7 kilometres (4.3 mi; 3.8 nmi) off Ucluelet , Vancouver Island , British Columbia , Canada , at 48°54′N 125°36′W  /  48.9°N 125.6°W  / 48.9; -125.6 recorded a lone 17.6-metre (58 ft) tall wave among surrounding waves about 6 metres (20 ft) in height. The wave exceeded

14155-900: The geographic center of either the 50 states, the conterminous United States, or the North American continent." Nonetheless, there is a 4.6-meter (15 ft) field stone obelisk in Rugby claiming to mark the center. The North American continental pole of inaccessibility is located 1,650 km (1,030 mi) from the nearest coastline, between Allen and Kyle, South Dakota at 43°22′N 101°58′W  /  43.36°N 101.97°W  / 43.36; -101.97  ( Pole of Inaccessibility North America ) . Canada can be divided into roughly seven physiographic divisions: The lower 48 U.S. states can be divided into roughly eight physiographic divisions: Mexico can be divided into roughly fifteen physiographic divisions: North America

14304-419: The indigenous people who lived there, including the bison hunters of the Great Plains and the farmers of Mesoamerica . Native groups also are classified by their language families , which included Athapascan and Uto-Aztecan languages. Indigenous peoples with similar languages did not always share the same material culture , however, and were not necessarily always allies. Anthropologists speculate that

14453-518: The island due to limited dock availability; it then returned to dock in Port Louis on March 3–7. The morning of March 6, students were informed of another itinerary change due to quarantine concerns when arriving at European ports from North Africa . SAS concluded the Spring 2020 voyage, canceling all South Africa-related programming on March 12, and advised students to return home from Cape Town in light of

14602-460: The land since its creation, but there is no evidence that humans evolved there. The specifics of the initial settlement of the Americas by ancient Asians are subject to ongoing research and discussion. The traditional theory has been that hunters entered the Bering Land Bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska from 27,000 to 14,000 years ago. A growing viewpoint is that

14751-555: The largest waves recorded by scientific instruments up to that time. The authors noted that modern wave prediction models are known to significantly under-predict extreme sea states for waves with a significant height (H s ) above 12 m (39.4 ft). The analysis of this event took a number of years and noted that "none of the state-of-the-art weather forecasts and wave models ‍ — the information upon which all ships, oil rigs, fisheries, and passenger boats rely ‍ — had predicted these behemoths." In simple terms,

14900-466: The laser used for the Draupner wave might be somewhat confused by the spray at the top of the wave if it broke, and this could lead to uncertainties of around 1.0 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 ft) in the wave height. They concluded, "... the onset and type of wave breaking play a significant role and differ significantly for crossing and noncrossing waves. Crucially, breaking becomes less crest-amplitude limiting for sufficiently large crossing angles and involves

15049-476: The latter were believed to be scientifically implausible. Since the 19th century, oceanographers, meteorologists, engineers, and ship designers have used a statistical model known as the Gaussian function (or Gaussian Sea or standard linear model) to predict wave height, on the assumption that wave heights in any given sea are tightly grouped around a central value equal to the average of the largest third, known as

15198-692: The mainland in Mexico. With local indigenous allies, the Spanish conquered the Aztec empire in central Mexico in 1521. Spain then established permanent cities in Mexico, Central America, and Spanish South America in the sixteenth century. Once Spaniards conquered the high civilization of the Aztecs and Incas, the Caribbean was a backwater of the Spanish empire. Other European powers began to intrude on areas claimed by Spain, including

15347-424: The media, and are not examples of open-ocean rogue waves. Often, in popular culture, an endangering huge wave is loosely denoted as a "rogue wave", while the case has not been established that the reported event is a rogue wave in the scientific sense – i.e. of a very different nature in characteristics as the surrounding waves in that sea state] and with a very low probability of occurrence. This section lists

15496-912: The middle into the main range of the Rockies and the coast ranges in California , Oregon , Washington , and British Columbia , with the Great Basin—a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts—in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska. The U.S. Geographical Survey (USGS) states that the geographic center of North America is "6 miles [10 km] west of Balta, Pierce County, North Dakota " at about 48°10′N 100°10′W  /  48.167°N 100.167°W  / 48.167; -100.167 , about 24 kilometers (15 mi) from Rugby, North Dakota . The USGS further states that "No marked or monumented point has been established by any government agency as

15645-429: The most common causes are or whether they vary from place to place is premature. The areas of highest predictable risk appear to be where a strong current runs counter to the primary direction of travel of the waves; the area near Cape Agulhas off the southern tip of Africa is one such area. The warm Agulhas Current runs to the southwest, while the dominant winds are westerlies , but since this thesis does not explain

15794-450: The name America to North America. In 1538, Gerardus Mercator used the term America on his world map of the entire Western Hemisphere . On his subsequent 1569 map , Mercator called North America "America or New India" ( America sive India Nova ). The Spanish Empire called its territories in North and South America "Las Indias", and the name given to the state body that oversaw the region

15943-493: The northernmost countries and territories of North America: the U.S., Bermuda , Canada, Greenland, and St. Pierre and Miquelon. Although the term does not refer to a unified region, Middle America includes Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. North America's largest countries by land area are Canada and the U.S., both of which have well-defined and recognized subregions. In Canada, these include (from east to west) Atlantic Canada , Central Canada , Canadian Prairies ,

16092-440: The northernmost extent of the island named Newfoundland , has provided unmistakable evidence of Norse settlement. Norse explorer Leif Erikson (c. 970–1020 CE) is thought to have visited the area. Erikson was the first European to make landfall on the continent (excluding Greenland). The Mayan culture was still present in southern Mexico and Guatemala when the Spanish conquistadors arrived, but political dominance in

16241-491: The oceans. They appear in other contexts and have recently been reported in liquid helium, nonlinear optics, and microwave cavities. Marine researchers universally now accept that these waves belong to a specific kind of sea wave, not considered by conventional models for sea wind waves. A 2015 paper studied the wave behavior around a rogue wave, including optical and the Draupner wave, and concluded, "rogue events do not necessarily appear without warning but are often preceded by

16390-589: The opportunity to earn four to five transferable credits. But after the Maymester 2012 voyage, Semester at Sea canceled the short-term voyages due to low enrollment. A two-week, December–January Enrichment Voyage for continuing education participants was also canceled. The voyages' itineraries focused on Central and South America, often transiting the Panama Canal or traveling up the Amazon River . A student died in

16539-553: The past 50 years at least. We don’t even have the start of a theory." In 2006, Smith proposed that the IACS recommendation 34 pertaining to standard wave data be modified so that the minimum design wave height be increased to 19.8 m (65 ft). He presented analysis that sufficient evidence exists to conclude that 20.1 m (66 ft) high waves can be experienced in the 25-year lifetime of oceangoing vessels, and that 29.9 m (98 ft) high waves are less likely, but not out of

16688-427: The port country. Before arriving at a port, they are briefed on the culture and societal rules of the country they are visiting. At the port of call, guest speakers (including community leaders and American ambassadors) deliver lectures to the students and faculty. The pre-port briefing and guest lectures are intended to prepare students for their stay in the country. Notable lecturers and guests have included: A lease

16837-653: The question. Therefore, a design criterion based on 11.0 m (36 ft) high waves seems inadequate when the risk of losing crew and cargo is considered. Smith also proposed that the dynamic force of wave impacts should be included in the structural analysis. The Norwegian offshore standards now consider extreme severe wave conditions and require that a 10,000-year wave does not endanger the ships' integrity. W. Rosenthal noted that as of 2005, rogue waves were not explicitly accounted for in Classification Society's rules for ships' design. As an example, DNV GL , one of

16986-586: The raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long plateaus and cordilleras , falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf. The western mountains are split in

17135-497: The recording of a rogue wave by the Gorm platform in the central North Sea in 1984. A stand-out wave was detected with a wave height of 11 m (36 ft) in a relatively low sea state. However, what caught the attention of the scientific community was the digital measurement of a rogue wave at the Draupner platform in the North Sea on January 1, 1995; called the "Draupner wave", it had

17284-500: The region, and as such rainforest , monsoon , and savanna types can be found, with rains and high temperatures throughout the year. Notable North American fauna include the bison , black bear , jaguar , cougar , prairie dog , turkey , pronghorn , raccoon , coyote , and monarch butterfly . Notable plants that were domesticated in North America include tobacco , maize , squash , tomato , sunflower , blueberry , avocado , cotton , chile pepper , and vanilla . Laurentia

17433-531: The removal of the next two ports ( Israel and Turkey ) from the itinerary and the ship was rerouted to Cyprus and Spain . Two incidents occurred during the fall 2000 semester on the SS Universe Explorer . Entering Vietnam, the ship was struck by a barge; its hull was damaged, and student rooms were closed. The Universe Explorer remained an extra day in Vietnam for repairs. Preparing to head north through

17582-478: The results of the formation of Pangaea was the Appalachian Mountains , which formed some 480 mya, making it among the oldest mountain ranges in the world. When Pangaea began to rift around 200 mya, North America became part of Laurasia , before it separated from Eurasia as its own continent during the mid- Cretaceous period. The Rockies and other western mountain ranges began forming around this time from

17731-468: The role played by a Peregrine soliton that may explain those waves that appear and disappear without leaving a trace. Rogue waves in other media appear to be ubiquitous and have also been reported in liquid helium , in quantum mechanics, in nonlinear optics , in microwave cavities, in Bose–Einstein condensate , in heat and diffusion, and in finance. Many of these encounters are reported only in

17880-652: The sea-floor, and oceanographic research vessels. In February 2000, a British oceanographic research vessel, the RRS Discovery , sailing in the Rockall Trough west of Scotland, encountered the largest waves ever recorded by any scientific instruments in the open ocean, with a SWH of 18.5 metres (61 ft) and individual waves up to 29.1 metres (95 ft). In 2004, scientists using three weeks of radar images from European Space Agency satellites found ten rogue waves, each 25 metres (82 ft) or higher. A rogue wave

18029-778: The separation of the Institute for Shipboard Education and the Seawise Foundation and the safety of the MV Explorer contributed to the University of Pittsburgh 's severing ties to the program in 2005. The program itinerary differs each semester, and the ship typically docks at 10 or 11 ports. An early-1990s spring itinerary included Nassau , Caracas , Salvador (Brazil) , Cape Town , Mombasa , Chennai , Singapore , Shanghai , Osaka and Hong Kong . More recent voyages have explored Hawaii , Japan , China , Vietnam , Myanmar , India , Mauritius , South Africa , Ghana , Morocco , and

18178-402: The ship sank because of structural failure and absolved the crew of any responsibility. Most notably, the report determined the detailed sequence of events that led to the structural failure of the vessel. A third comprehensive analysis was subsequently done by Douglas Faulkner, professor of marine architecture and ocean engineering at the University of Glasgow . His 2001 report linked the loss of

18327-442: The ship to survive flooding in hold one unless loading is restricted. Rogue waves present considerable danger for several reasons: they are rare, unpredictable, may appear suddenly or without warning, and can impact with tremendous force. A 12 m (39 ft) wave in the usual "linear" model would have a breaking force of 6 metric tons per square metre [t/m ] (8.5 psi). Although modern ships are typically designed to tolerate

18476-535: The ship's navigation systems. The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a Lockheed HC-130 search-and-rescue plane and two cutters after receiving a distress call from the ship. Two crew members were injured during the incident. While the ship was repaired in Honolulu , the students were flown to Hong Kong to continue their courses. The Explorer rejoined them in Ho Chi Minh City and completed the semester. Later that year,

18625-445: The shore is sometimes called a sneaker wave . In oceanography , rogue waves are more precisely defined as waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height ( H s or SWH), which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record. Rogue waves do not appear to have a single distinct cause but occur where physical factors such as high winds and strong currents cause waves to merge to create

18774-509: The sole basis of virtually every text on that topic for the past 100 years. The first known scientific article on "freak waves" was written by Professor Laurence Draper in 1964. In that paper, he documented the efforts of the National Institute of Oceanography in the early 1960s to record wave height, and the highest wave recorded at that time, which was about 20 metres (67 ft). Draper also described freak wave holes . Before

18923-557: The southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea , and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean . The region includes the Bahamas , Bermuda , Canada , the Caribbean , Central America , Clipperton Island , Greenland , Mexico , Saint Pierre and Miquelon , Turks and Caicos Islands , and the United States . North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), representing approximately 16.5% of

19072-486: The surrounding significant wave heights by a factor of 2.93. When the wave's detection was revealed to the public in February 2022, one scientific paper and many news outlets christened the event as "the most extreme rogue wave event ever recorded" and a "once-in-a-millennium" event, claiming that at about three times the height of the waves around it, the Ucluelet wave set a record as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded at

19221-494: The time in terms of its height in proportion to surrounding waves, and that a wave three times the height of those around it was estimated to occur on average only once every 1,300 years worldwide. The Ucluelet event generated controversy. Analysis of scientific papers dealing with rogue wave events since 2005 revealed the claims for the record-setting nature and rarity of the wave to be incorrect. The paper Oceanic rogue waves by Dysthe, Krogstad and Muller reports on an event in

19370-479: The typhoon load on the hatches was more than 10 times the design load. The forensic structural analysis of the wreck of the Derbyshire is now widely regarded as irrefutable. In addition, fast-moving waves are now known to also exert extremely high dynamic pressure. Plunging or breaking waves are known to cause short-lived impulse pressure spikes called Gifle peaks . These can reach pressures of 200 kPa (2.0 bar; 29 psi) (or more) for milliseconds, which

19519-445: The waterline. The pins had been bent back from forward to aft, indicating the lifeboat hanging below it had been struck by a wave that had run from fore to aft of the ship and had torn the lifeboat from the ship. To exert such force, the wave must have been considerably higher than 20 m (66 ft). At the time of the inquiry, the existence of rogue waves was considered so statistically unlikely as to be near impossible. Consequently,

19668-430: The wave known as a " hundred-year wave ", which is a purely statistical description of a particularly high wave with a 1% chance to occur in any given year in a particular body of water. Rogue waves have now been proven to cause the sudden loss of some ocean-going vessels. Well-documented instances include the freighter MS München , lost in 1978. Rogue waves have been implicated in the loss of other vessels, including

19817-449: The waves merge to create a single large wave; or when nonlinear effects cause energy to move between waves to create a single extremely large wave. Once considered mythical and lacking hard evidence, rogue waves are now proven to exist and are known to be natural ocean phenomena. Eyewitness accounts from mariners and damage inflicted on ships have long suggested they occur. Still, the first scientific evidence of their existence came with

19966-662: The waves studied were not as extreme as rogue waves, the research provided an understanding of how multidirectional wave interactions could lead to extreme wave heights - a key concept in the formation of rogue waves. The crossing wave phenomenon studied in the Delft Laboratory therefore had direct relevance to the unpredictable rogue waves encountered at sea. Research published in 2024 by TU Delft and other institutions has subsequently demonstrated that waves coming from multiple directions can grow up to four times steeper than previously imagined. The Draupner wave (or New Year's wave)

20115-469: The world's largest international certification bodies and classification society with main expertise in technical assessment, advisory, and risk management publishes their Structure Design Load Principles which remain largely based on the Significant Wave Height, and as of January 2016, still have not included any allowance for rogue waves. The U.S. Navy historically took the design position that

20264-667: Was announced in May 2015 for the ship previously known as the MS  Deutschland to be renovated, re-flagged and renamed the MV  World Odyssey , operated by V-Ships . Semester at Sea has used a number of ships as its floating campus, including the MS Seven Seas (formerly the USS Long Island ), the SS Ryndam (not the later freighter of that name), the SS Universe (formerly

20413-540: Was called the Council of the Indies . The United Nations and its statistics division recognize North America as including three regions: Northern America, Central America , and the Caribbean . "Northern America" is a distinct term from "North America", excluding Central America, which itself may or may not include Mexico . In the limited context of regional trade agreements, the term is used to reference three nations: Canada,

20562-585: Was changed by the U.S. State Department to include Singapore, Seychelles , and Cape Town. On the Indian Ocean, the ship's communication with other vessels was limited to protect the American citizens on board. On January 26, 2005, the MV Explorer weathered a combination of three storms in the North Pacific . A 50-foot (15 m) freak wave smashed the bridge's windows, breaking one of them and briefly affecting

20711-601: Was found in June 1994. The survey team deployed a remotely operated vehicle to photograph the wreck. A private report published in 1998 prompted the British government to reopen a formal investigation into the sinking. The investigation included a comprehensive survey by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , which took 135,774 pictures of the wreck during two surveys. The formal forensic investigation concluded that

20860-790: Was in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, followed by additional colonial establishments on the east coast from present-day Georgia in the south to Massachusetts in the north, forming the Thirteen Colonies of British America. The English did not establish settlements north or east of the St. Lawrence Valley in present-day Canada until after the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War . Britain's early settlements in present-day Canada included St. John's, Newfoundland in 1630 and Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1749. The first permanent French settlement

21009-523: Was in Quebec City, Quebec in 1608 Rogue wave Rogue waves (also known as freak waves or killer waves ) are large and unpredictable surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships and isolated structures such as lighthouses . They are distinct from tsunamis , which are long wavelength waves, often almost unnoticeable in deep waters and are caused by the displacement of water due to other phenomena (such as earthquakes ). A rogue wave at

21158-485: Was not necessarily as expected. If waves met at an angle less than about 60°, then the top of the wave "broke" sideways and downwards (a "plunging breaker"). Still, from about 60° and greater, the wave began to break vertically upwards, creating a peak that did not reduce the wave height as usual but instead increased it (a "vertical jet"). They also showed that the steepness of rogue waves could be reproduced in this manner. Lastly, they observed that optical instruments such as

21307-440: Was published in 1997. Some research confirms that observed wave height distribution, in general, follows well the Rayleigh distribution . Still, in shallow waters during high energy events, extremely high waves are rarer than this particular model predicts. From about 1997, most leading authors acknowledged the existence of rogue waves with the caveat that wave models could not replicate rogue waves. Statoil researchers presented

21456-437: Was rerouted due to terrorism concerns. Ramzi Yousef was convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing on November 12 of that year, and the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for American citizens in the Middle East. The Luxor massacre occurred five days later, while the ship was docked in Port Said and the students were in Egypt. Although no students were involved, fears of terrorism resulted in

21605-436: Was rerouted from Turkey to Croatia to avoid terrorism and the refugee crisis . The fall 2017 voyage was rerouted from Mauritius at the vessel owner's request, and the ship went from India to South Africa. On November 7, 2017, in Bagan , Myanmar , a St. Edward's University student was fatally injured in a 20-foot (6.1 m) fall from a pagoda . The Spring 2020 voyage avoided a number of countries (including China) due to

21754-471: Was scheduled to begin with an online program and continue with a condensed voyage beginning in late October. Voyagers were scheduled to embark in Tenerife, Canary Islands, sail on to Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Colombia, Panama Canal Transit, Ecuador, and Easter Island (Chile), with final disembarkation taking place in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Students attend classes in a number of subjects and disciplines, including humanities courses relevant to one (or more) of

21903-416: Was the first European to suggest that the Americas represented a landmass not then known to the Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller published a world map, and placed the word "America" on the continent of present-day South America. The continent north of present-day Mexico was then referred to as Parias. On a 1553 world map published by Petrus Apianus , North America was called "Baccalearum", meaning "realm of

22052-442: Was the first rogue wave to be detected by a measuring instrument . The wave was recorded in 1995 at Unit E of the Draupner platform , a gas pipeline support complex located in the North Sea about 160 km (100 miles) southwest from the southern tip of Norway. The rig was built to withstand a calculated 1-in-10,000-years wave with a predicted height of 20 m (64 ft) and was fitted with state-of-the-art sensors, including

22201-442: Was towed to the South China Sea and anchored overnight, guarded by crew members against piracy. A planned stop at Manila was canceled, and the Universe was rerouted to Singapore. Examinations were completed at anchor in the harbor, and the students and faculty were flown to the next two planned ports (Osaka and Shanghai). In Shanghai, the Universe met the students for the final leg of the voyage to Hong Kong. 1997's fall voyage

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