Rockall part of the deeply eroded Rockall Igneous Centre that was formed as part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province, approximately 55 million years ago, when the ancient continent of Laurasia was split apart by plate tectonics. Greenland and Europe separated and the northeast Atlantic Ocean was formed between them, eventually leaving Rockall as an isolated islet. The RV "Celtic Explorer" surveyed the Rockall Bank in 2003. The Irish Light Vessel "Granuaile" (the same name as the steamer on the RIA 1896 botany survey) was chartered by the Geological Survey of Ireland, on behalf of the Department of Communications, Marine and
Rogue wave existence has also since been confirmed by video and photographs, and satellite imagery and radar of the ocean surface, by stereo wave imaging systems, by pressure transducers on the sea-floor and notably by oceanographic research vessel. 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 scientific instruments in the open ocean, with a SWH of and individual waves up to . "In 2004 scientists using three weeks of radar images from European Space Agency satellites found ten rogue waves, each or higher." A