Brevia

Extreme Waves Under Hurricane Ivan

David W. Wang [email protected], Douglas A. Mitchell, William J. Teague, Ewa Jarosz, and Mark S. HulbertAuthors Info & Affiliations

Science

5 Aug 2005

Vol 309, Issue 5736

p. 896

DOI: 10.1126/science.1112509

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Abstract

Hurricane Ivan, a category 4 storm, passed directly over six wave-tide gauges deployed by the Naval Research Laboratory on the outer continental shelf in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Waves were observed with significant wave heights reaching 17.9 meters and maximum crest-to-trough individual wave heights of 27.7 meters (91 feet). Analysis suggests that significant wave heights likely surpassed 21 meters (69 feet) and that maximum crest-to-trough individual wave heights exceeded 40 meters (132 feet) near the eyewall.

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References and Notes

Materials and methods are available as supporting material on Science Online.

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Supported by the Office of Naval Research as part of the NRL's basic research project “Slope to Shelf Energetics and Exchange Dynamics (SEED)” under program element 0601153N (NRL–Stennis Space Center contribution no. NRL/JA/7330–05–5172), by the Minerals Management Service Environmental Studies Program, and by the Minerals Management Service Technology Assessment and Research Program on Hurricane Ivan.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Science

Volume 309 | Issue 5736
5 August 2005

Copyright

American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Submission history

Received: 21 March 2005

Accepted: 8 July 2005

Published in print: 5 August 2005

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Notes

Supporting Online Material

www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/309/5736/896/DC1

Materials and Methods

Fig. S1