In a country where most people live below sea level, studying the oceans is a matter of survival. Now Dutch scientists have created the world's biggest man-made wave in a bid to prepare for the worst, AFP reports.
"Here we can test what happens if enormous waves hit our dykes," said Dutch Infrastructure Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen as she inaugurated the giant wave machine Monday in the city of Delft.
Dubbed the "Delta Flume," the machine, which took three years to build at the Deltares institute, can send waves as high as five meters crashing down a 300-meter long channel which is some 9 and a half meters deep.