Were freak waves involved in the sinking of the Tanker “Prestige”?

This paper deals with the possible involvement of freak, rogue or giant waves in the damage suffered by the Tanker Prestige, which eventually led to its sinking. By reason of their very characteristics, giant waves are hard to record. Their more or less sudden appearance makes them fairly elusive objects, except for the consequences they produce. However, some hints with regard to the probability of their occurrence can be derived from considering how close the maritime weather of the area of interest is to the situation which is optimal for their generation. This paper takes into account the wave field in the area and at the time of the Prestige accident and investigates how near or how far the wave field was to the instability conditions that are favourable to the generation of freak waves in the different approximations. This paper explores mostly the modulation instability which is one of the most common mechanisms to produce freak waves: it leads to the decomposition of an initially homogeneous train of Stokes waves firstly into a series of groups of waves, whose envelope then produces the so-called “solitons”, that then collapse in the form of a giant wave. This mechanism mainly occurs in deep waters. Zakharov studied it in 1968 and, independently, Benjamin and Feir analysed it in 1967. This paper proves that the wave field was conspicuously two dimensional with two main wave components travelling in directions almost orthogonal to each other. This means that the wave field was well outside the instability domain. Therefore it is concluded that freak waves were very unlikely generated and it is improbable that they were responsible for the accident. Correspondence to: A. Lechuga ([email protected])1Introduction Some people and institutions concerned with the accident of the Tanker Prestige expressed the opinion that perhaps the main damage that eventually led to its sinking could be caused by freak waves. In order to clarify this point we are going to study the possible involvement of such waves in the damage suffered by the Prestige, using observed wave records and theoretical models to describe the sea conditions. Firstly, it is useful to define what we understand as a freak wave. To this end we will take into account the descriptions appearing in the literature and the opinions shared by many researchers, such as Pelinovsky and Kharif (2000), Peregrine (1979), Osborne et al. (2000), Zakharov et al. (2006), and Dyachencko and Zakharov (2005), amongst many others. The two last named authors, in particular, point out the following characteristics of freak waves

Freak Edge Waves

The nonlinear and unsteady dynamics of the edge waves is discussed. Two physical processes: dispersive focusing and nonlinear modulational instability, are studied. Both mechanisms can induce the appearance of the short-living large-amplitude isolated waves and intense wave packets (“freak edge waves”)

Were freak waves involved in the sinking of the Tanker "Prestige"?

International audienceThis paper deals with the possible involvement of freak, rogue or giant waves in the damage suffered by the Tanker Prestige, which eventually led to its sinking. By reason of their very characteristics, giant waves are hard to record. Their more or less sudden appearance makes them fairly elusive objects, except for the consequences they produce. However, some hints with regard to the probability of their occurrence can be derived from considering how close the maritime weather of the area of interest is to the situation which is optimal for their generation. This paper takes into account the wave field in the area and at the time of the Prestige accident and investigates how near or how far the wave field was to the instability conditions that are favourable to the generation of freak waves in the different approximations. This paper explores mostly the modulation instability which is one of the most common mechanisms to produce freak waves: it leads to the decomposition of an initially homogeneous train of Stokes waves firstly into a series of groups of waves, whose envelope then produces the so-called "solitons", that then collapse in the form of a giant wave. This mechanism mainly occurs in deep waters. Zakharov studied it in 1968 and, independently, Benjamin and Feir analysed it in 1967. This paper proves that the wave field was conspicuously two dimensional with two main wave components travelling in directions almost orthogonal to each other. This means that the wave field was well outside the instability domain. Therefore it is concluded that freak waves were very unlikely generated and it is improbable that they were responsible for the accident

Chemical sensors and biosensors in liquid environment based on microcantilevers with amplified quality factors

Póster presentado al 1st Senspol Workshop: SENSPOL European Thematic Network (EC Environmental and Climate Programma) Sensing Technologies for Contaminated Sites and Groundwater celebrado en Alcala de Henares (Madrid-España) en 2001.Peer reviewe

Surface plasmon resonance biosensors for highly sensitive detection in real samples

In this work we summarize the main results obtained with the portable surface plasmon resonance (SPR) device developed in our group (commercialised by SENSIA, SL, Spain), highlighting its applicability for the real-time detection of extremely low concentrations of toxic pesticides in environmental water samples. In addition, we show applications in clinical diagnosis as, on the one hand, the real-time and label-free detection of DNA hybridization and single point mutations at the gene BRCA-1, related to the predisposition in women to develop an inherited breast cancer and, on the other hand, the analysis of protein biomarkers in biological samples (urine, serum) for early detection of diseases. Despite the large number of applications already proven, the SPR technology has two main drawbacks: (i) not enough sensitivity for some specific applications (where pM-fM or single-molecule detection are needed) (ii) low multiplexing capabilities. In order solve such drawbacks, we work in several alternative configurations as the Magneto-optical Surface Plasmon Resonance sensor (MOSPR) based on a combination of magnetooptical and ferromagnetic materials, to improve the SPR sensitivity, or the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) based on nanostructures (nanoparticles, nanoholes,...), for higher multiplexing capabilities

Influence of ozonation processes on the microbial degradation of surfactants

The influence of ozonation of aqueous solutions of non-ionic surfactants was investigated in this study. The research was conducted using solutions of amine oxide based surfactants. These surfactants constitute a particular class of non-ionic surfactants that exhibit cationic behaviour in acid solution, they show good foaming properties and are skin compatible. The ozonation process was carried out at 25ºC in a stirred tank reactor for 30 min, where gaseous ozone was bubbled. The degree of mineralization achieved after the ozonation process was evaluated by measuring the total organic carbon before and after ozonation. The influence of ozonation on biodegradability of the solutions was studied using the biodegradation test by Pseudomonas putida. Biodegradation efficiency of the ozonated amine oxides based surfactants was also evaluated. It was found that the effectiveness of ozonation depended on the chemical structure of surfactant molecule. Ozonation only slightly improved biodegradation of these surfactants

Phase profile analysis of transparent objects through the use of a two windows interferometer based on a one beam splitter configuration

AbstractIn this research we implemented a two windows interferometer based on polarization phase shifting and grating interferometry techniques in order to retrieve the phase data profile of the object in a single capture. The optical configuration has two optical beams with circular polarization in opposite directions, and it is coupled with a 4-f system. An amplitude grid is used as a filter which is placed at the Fourier plane to obtain replicas of each beam which can properly interfere, depending on the separation between beams. The interferometer presents the capability of changing the beam separation in order to make different orders interfere properly. The interference patterns produced can be separately modulated through the operation of linear polarizer's placed on each interference replica. In order to present the capabilities of the system we will select four interferograms result of contiguous orders interference

Microwave-driven synthesis of bisphosphonate nanoparticles allows in vivo visualisation of atherosclerotic plaque

A fast and reproducible microwave-driven process has allowed us to synthesise neridronate-functionalised nanoparticles. Contrary to tradition, the phosphate groups decorate the outside layer of the particles providing Ca2+ binding properties in vitro and selective accumulation in vivo in the atheroma plaque. In vivo and ex vivo detection by T2-weighted MRI is demonstrated and validated by histology. The accumulation in the plaque takes place in less than one hour following the intravenous injection, which is particularly suitable for clinical applications