Nearly 80-Foot Tall Wave, Largest Ever, Recorded In Southern Hemisphere

Scientists have documented what is believed to be the largest wave in the southern hemisphere off New Zealand coast Tuesday. The wave was 23.8 metres (78 foot), which is approximately the height of an eight-floor building. It wiped out the previous record of 22.3 meter set in south Tasmania in 2012.

The record was set during a powerful storm near Campbell Island in Southern Ocean, some 700 kilometers (430 miles) south of New Zealand. The wave was generated by a deep low-pressure system and wind speed exceeding 65 knots.

Senior oceanographer Tom Durrant said Southern Ocean is known for generating swell waves that move across the planet.

“The region accounts for about 22 percent of the planet's oceans, and it's the most energetic part of the world's oceans in terms of waves,” he added.

Waves like this do not just affect the coasts in southern hemisphere, but also those in the northern hemisphere.

“This is a very exciting event and to our knowledge it is largest wave ever recorded in the southern hemisphere. Indeed, surfers in California can expect energy from this storm to arrive at their shores in about a week's time,” Durrant said, reported Yahoo.com. “It is quite possible, even probable, that there were much higher waves during this storm.”

In March this year, the Meteorological Service of New Zealand installed a buoy to measure wave length. The solar-powered buoy can only operate 20 minutes every 3 hours, the Australian Broadcasting Corp, reported.

"It's very probable that larger waves topping 25 meters occurred during the peak of the storm while the buoy was not recording," Durrant said.

World Meteorological Organization only holds record of "significant wave height" or average of successive swells.

"During this storm, the significant wave height reached 14.9m. This is also a record for the Southern Ocean, but falls short of the 19m world record buoy measurement that was recorded in the North Atlantic during 2013,” he said.

In addition, he said the storm moved across the southern hemisphere without any hindrance due to lack of land.

According to the Smithsonian, the largest wave ever recorded was in Alaska’s Lituya Bay in 1958. It measured 30.5 meters (100 feet) and was caused due to a tsunami, which killed five people. The wave snapped 1,700 trees but did not damage much property as there were a very few towns nearby.

Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa, 22, caught a 24.38 meter giant at Nazare in Portugal in November. He was recently acknowledged at Big Wave Awards in California for having ridden the biggest wave ever surfed.