Are waves really touching the clouds in the viral video?
A video with the caption “Waves touching clouds” is making rounds on social media. Netizens across all platforms are sharing it massively, especially on Twitter, where it has garnered more than 14 million views when shared by one page. The views are still on the rise and the video has caused quite a stir on social media.
Claim:Â The caption claims that the waves in the video are rising as high as the clouds and are brushing through them.
Waves touching Clouds! pic.twitter.com/XLoZjAvb41
— Crazy Science (@crazysciencee) July 3, 2021
Waves touching the clouds
by bummilcaseins pic.twitter.com/6s2YviBlRV— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) June 3, 2021
Truth
The video is real but the condensed air above, touching the waves are not real clouds. Those are sea spray aerosols. The caption with the video is, hence, misleading.
In the video, the waves are brushing through fog like formations, which actually are Sea Spray Aerosol. Sea spray aerosol or SSA originally comes from sea spray and is one of the most widely distributed natural aerosols. SSA look like clouds but are formed by the ocean mostly by ejection from bursting bubbles at the air-sea interface. To further understand the production of sea spray aerosol in detail, click here and read this article by Science Direct.
Moreover, the highest tsunami wave ever recorded broke in 1958 when a 1,720 feet tsunami towered over Lituya Bay, Alaska, causing the death of five people. There is no mention anywhere of even the highest recorded wave, touching the clouds.
Also, the lowest level of clouds starts below only 6,500 feet. Judging by the height of the highest recorded wave, if the waves rose to the clouds, it could cause mass destruction in the nearby areas which was not the case here. Hence, it is clear that the caption with the viral video is misleading.
Conor Hegyi, an ocean Videographer captured the video. Hegyi uploaded a 5-minute film from his trip to Tahiti in 2015 on Vimeo titled Showreel. The viral video is a part of the film at 3:35 – 3:42. He again uploaded the video on his Instagram account in 2019 following which it was heavily shared on social media. It is still going viral after 6 years of its creation.
Click here, here and here to read more articles fact-checking the misleading caption.
SMHoaxSlayer had previously fact-checked a similar viral video. Click here to read it.
