Book Review

Authors: Eric L Geist

Publish Date: 2011/01/19

Volume: 168, Issue: 10, Pages: 1887-1888

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Abstract

“Extreme Ocean Waves” is a collection of ten papers edited by Efim Pelinovsky and Christian Kharif that followed the April 2007 meeting of the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union A note on terminology extreme waves in this volume broadly encompass different types of waves including deepwater and shallowwater rogue waves alternatively termed freak waves storm surges from cyclones and internal waves Other types of waves such as tsunamis or rissaga meteotsunamis are not discussed in this volume It is generally implied that “extreme” has a statistical connotation relative to the average or significant wave height specific to each type of wave Throughout the book in fact the reader will find a combination of theoretical and statistical/empirical treatment necessary for the complete examination of this subject In the introduction the editors underscore the importance of studying extreme waves documenting several dramatic instances of damaging extreme waves

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