Why are ocean waves getting bigger?
Damaged coastlines and stronger storms are in our future


Climate change is making areas around the world more dangerous to live in, or in some cases uninhabitable. The ocean is no exception to climate change's effects. In 2023, oceans hit record-high temperatures that threatened marine life and brought devastation to many coral reefs. The warmer waters have also led to more and stronger hurricanes and storms forming and wreaking havoc on coastal regions. Now, scientists have also discovered that climate change is making waves, literally. That's right: Waves are becoming larger and stronger, which could cause even more damage to coasts and potentially worsen existing storms.
Why are waves getting bigger?
Bigger waves are a phenomenon that has been observed all across the world and can be attributed to the warming climate. "Global warming puts increased energy in the atmosphere, resulting in stronger storms with intensified winds that generate increased wave heights," oceanographer Peter Bromirski, told The Washington Post. "Further increases in wave activity along coasts potentially will follow, aggravating issues from higher tides associated with sea level rise."
Wave energy has been increasing over time, a statistic scientists discovered using seismometers. Those tools measure ground movement, usually from earthquakes, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications. The most powerful waves were discovered in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, but the North Atlantic Ocean experienced the highest increase in wave energy over the past 40 years compared to its levels of increase historically. "As these waves interact with the coast and the seafloor, they push and pull the seafloor, and that creates a force," Richard Aster, author of the Nature Communications study, told San Francisco Chronicle. "And that force creates seismic waves that propagate all over the world."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What are the risks associated?
"If the waves are extreme," Itxaso Oderiz, a coastal hazard researcher from IHCantabria, told the Post, "sediment transport can be substantial, causing erosion and affecting coastal infrastructure," and "the water level can rise significantly, leading to coastal flooding." These factors need to be taken into account to "create resilient communities in the face of rising," Patrick Barnard, a research geologist with the United States Geological Survey, told The New York Times.
In addition, this phenomenon is predicted to worsen. For example on the coast of California, average winter wave heights have increased by almost one foot since 1970, when scientists claim the Earth started warming at an accelerated pace, according to a study published in JGR Oceans. The occurrence of large wave swells of at least 13 feet are also "happening a lot more often, occurring at least twice as often from 1996 to 2016 than from 1949 to 1969," The Associated Press reported.
"As sea level rises and the waves get bigger, you get an aggravated effect in terms of coastal impacts," Aster explained. Because of this, coastal areas will become increasingly unsafe to inhabit and may require people to relocate further inland. "It's just one more indication that things are going in the wrong direction," Gary Griggs, an oceanographer at the University of California Santa Cruz, remarked to KSBW. "It's like a giant chemistry experiment, only we can't turn it off." He added, "waves are getting bigger, more powerful, the weather's getting crazier. So that's going to be more impact on the shoreline."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.
-
Today's political cartoons - April 20, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - Pam Bondi, retirement planning, and more
By The Week US
-
5 heavy-handed cartoons about ICE and deportation
Cartoons Artists take on international students, the Supreme Court, and more
By The Week US
-
Exploring the three great gardens of Japan
The Week Recommends Beautiful gardens are 'the stuff of Japanese landscape legends'
By The Week UK
-
Electric ferries are becoming the next big environmental trend
Under the Radar From Hong Kong to Lake Tahoe, electric ferries are the new wave
By Justin Klawans, The Week US
-
US proposes eroding species protections
Speed Read The Trump administration wants to change the definition of 'harm' in the Environmental Protection Act to allow habitat damage
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Ukraine is experiencing an 'ecocide' and wants Russia to pay
Under the radar The environment is a silent victim of war
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
How wild horses are preventing wildfires in Spain
Under The Radar The animals roam more than 5,700 hectares of public forest, reducing the volume of combustible vegetation in the landscape
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
-
Scientists invent a solid carbon-negative building material
Under the radar Building CO2 into the buildings
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Dozens of deep-sea creatures discovered after iceberg broke off Antarctica
Under the radar The cold never bothered them anyway
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Why plans for a national park are 'ripping apart' genteel Galloway
Under the Radar Galloway's towns are 'bracketed with campaign banners' as residents battle over plans for the park
By Abby Wilson
-
Earth's climate is in the era of 'global weirding'
The Explainer Weather is harder to predict and more extreme
By Devika Rao, The Week US