Largest Waves

On the open ocean, when waves are really just swells in the water, the largest ever recorded by a buoy was 62.3 feet (19 metres).

Situated in the North Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland, buoy K5 picked up this enormous swell during a storm front with winds of around 50 mph. A ship observed an even bigger wave in the North Atlantic, though, at a staggering 95 feet (29 metres).

Of course, it’s when the water meets the land that most of us become interested in wave height.

Nazare in Portugal has a deep underwater canyon that drops down to 16,000 feet (5,000 metres) and leads right up to the shoreline. It works as a funnel to power up water towards the coast, meeting with the natural swell of the ocean to create waves up to 100 feet (just over 30 metres), which some surfers like to ride.

But none of these match up to the tsunami wave created by landfall in Lituya Bay, Alaska. Rockfall fell from around 3,000 feet (just over 900 metres) and drove a tsunami into the bay.

When it reached land, the water was pushed up and the wave’s tip broke at 1,720 feet (524 metres) on the nearby mountainside, destroying everything in its path.

The vastness of Russia contains the world’s coldest city, Yakutsk, and the world’s coldest inhabited place, Oymyakon. Temperatures in the latter average about -50 deg. C., with an (unofficial) low of -71.2 deg. C. recorded in 1924, only beaten by Antarctica with -89.2 deg. C. Summers, though, can get up to 34 deg. C.!

The schools are closed in

Oymyakon if the temperature goes below -55 deg. C. It’s cold enough that boiling water thrown in the air will freeze instantly.

Of course, it’s colder in space, at around -270 deg. C. Amazingly, a human could survive – suitless – in space for about 15 seconds.

NASA space suit testing exposed Jim LeBlanc to a space-like vacuum environment when his suit sprang a leak. He passed out after 15 seconds, but survived the incident when co-workers rushed in to help.