Sea can cause individual (unexpected) rogue waves much higher than normal. Most waves are less than high and it is not unusual for strong storms to double or triple that height; offshore construction such as wind farms and oil platforms use metocean statistics from measurements in computing the wave forces (due to for instance the hundred-year wave) they are designed against. Rogue waves, however, have been documented at heights above . The top of a wave is known as the crest, the lowest point between waves is the trough and the distance between the crests is the wavelength. The wave is
Wind wave Wave refraction is the process that occurs when waves interact with the sea bed as the wave crests align themselves as a result of approaching decreasing water depths at an angle to the depth contours. Varying depths along a wave crest cause the crest to travel at different phase speeds, with those parts of the wave in deeper water moving faster than those in shallow water. This process continues until the crests become (nearly) parallel to the depth contours. Rays—lines normal to wave crests between which a fixed amount of energy flux is contained—converge on local shallows and shoals. Therefore,