Rogue Waves

Yes, that makes a lot of sense.

Not exactly a "Rogue" wave, but pretty scary at 1719 feet...

"The 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake occurred on July 9, 1958, at 22:15:58 PST with a moment magnitude of 7.8 to 8.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme).^[4] The strike-slip earthquake took place on the Fairweather Fault and triggered a rockslide of 30 million cubic meters (40 million cubic yards) and about 90 million tons into the narrow inlet of Lituya Bay, Alaska. The impact was heard 80 kilometers (50 mi) away,^[7] and the sudden displacement of water resulted in a megatsunami that washed out trees to a maximum elevation of 524 meters (1,719 feet) at the entrance of Gilbert Inlet.^[8] This is the largest and most significant megatsunami in modern times; it forced a re-evaluation of large-wave events and the recognition of impact events, rockfalls, and landslides as causes of very large waves.^[9]"

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Lituya_Bay_earthquake_and_megatsunami}

Mechanical movement it a lab situation can produce rogue waves on command.

I would like to see testing using only wind pulses across the surface of the water over long distances.

Rhythmic gusts could produce rogue waves, if the rhythm hit a certain frequency, pushing at the right time like kid on a swing getting higher and higher.

As the wave moves downwind, the doppler effect would alter the frequency it felt until it hit a resonant frequency which would amplify the energy.

No underwater obstruction required.

Lake George in Australia, near Canberra was used to research rogue waves for some decades. It was selected as there was no commercial boating on the surface and it was generally large enough for wave formation.

There were monitoring structures in the lake with telemetry to transmit results.

That testing was concluded decades ago and the structures were part of a recent trivia "what is this?" question session.

They did achieve some level of predictive results that were applied into construction of offshore rigs and such around the world.

It's my understanding that they form when surface current is in one direction and the wind current is in the opposite direction. This creates a pile-up of water that occasionally forms a very large wave.

According to NOAA, two known causes are constructive interference and focusing of wave energy.

"Constructive interference. Extreme waves often form because swells, while traveling across the ocean, do so at different speeds and directions. As these swells pass through one another, their crests, troughs, and lengths sometimes coincide and reinforce each other. This process can form unusually large, towering waves that quickly disappear. If the swells are travelling in the same direction, these mountainous waves may last for several minutes before subsiding.

Focusing of wave energy. When waves formed by a storm develop in a water current against the normal wave direction, an interaction can take place which results in a shortening of the wave frequency. This can cause the waves to dynamically join together, forming very big 'rogue' waves. The currents where these are sometimes seen are the Gulf Stream and Agulhas current. Extreme waves developed in this fashion tend to be longer lived."

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/roguewaves.html#:~:text=When%20waves%20formed%20by%20a,very%20big%20'rogue'%20waves.

Don't know what causes it, but I've experienced one while sailing on a 44 foot catamaran in the British Virgin Islands.

We were anchored in a harbor, early morning, wind was calm. I was in the head taking care of business, someone else was in the kitchen making breakfast. I heard them yell out, "Holy #%$ *^!!! Hang on!" I didn't see the wave, but others said it was 3-4 feet high and hit us broadside. Everything that was loose was knocked over like an earthquake had hit or something. I wish I could have seen it.