Immense power of monster 7-story waves in Portugal spotted in satellite image

NASA has released a stunning image of Portugal’s coastline showing the immense power of massive, seven-story-high waves as they crashed toward the shore. The image, taken in 2020, was captured on the same day that an 18-year-old surfer reportedly rode a record-breaking 101.4-foot-high (30.9 meters) wave in the area.

The photo, which was captured by the Landsat 8 satellite on Oct. 29, 2020, shows a thick band of white foam that was left behind by the massive waves as they broke along the famous North Beach (Praia do Norte) in Nazaré — widely considered to be one of the best locations in the world for big-wave surfing. The image also shows that the ferocious swells ripped up the surrounding seafloor sediment into enormous underwater plumes that stretched around 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) from the shore, according to a NASA Earth Observatory statement