There’s a massive wave heading across the ocean straight for the California coast — not a freak tsunami, but a slow-moving surge driven by what may be one of the strongest El Niño oscillations in nearly a millennium.
The phenomenon is called a “Kelvin wave,” an incomprehensibly vast displacement of warm ocean water creeping from the west Pacific toward the Americas. As the Guardian notes, the wave spans thousands of miles of surf, which is currently creeping upward toward the California coast after a slow-motion crash into South and Central America.
When the full force of the wave reaches the Golden State, it could raise coastal sea levels by as much as a foot, ocean scientists told the Guardian. And due to the forces of El Niño, sea levels could remain in that elevated state for months, accelerating coastal erosion and feeding severe storms.
“It’s a wave unlike the ones you’re used to at the beach,” research oceanographer at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center Mike Jacox told the Guardian. “They don’t crash, you can’t really seem them come by. This winter, we’re supposed to have some really high tides around Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you also have more storms, then you have storm surge. It’s just like you’re raising the floor on all that stuff that happens.”
