Cowabunga, Dude – April 1, 2022
A collaboration by NASA and the United States Geological Survey resulted in Landsat 8, a satellite that captured this interesting phenomenon near the town of Puerto Malabrigo, Peru. The waves that break on Puerto Malabrigo’s beaches, which can be seen in this image taken on March 23, 2021, may be the world’s longest breaking waves. Citing Andrew Thomas, an oceanographer and former surfer, NASA explains that the waves begin to propagate from storm systems in the Pacific and Southern Oceans. These waves travel parallel to the coastline of Peru, until features along the pictured peninsula trigger them to break. Here, waves can break for minutes instead of seconds as they coast along the remaining distance to the beach.
