At Hualien Harbor in eastern Taiwan, one enormous wave was enough to make a seven-story lighthouse nearly disappear.

The red lighthouse on the port’s eastern breakwater stands 22.8 meters—almost 75 feet—tall. Yet in a remarkable photograph shared as Super Typhoon Champi battered Taiwan, a towering explosion of whitewater rises around the structure until almost nothing is visible.

“It’s been several years since I last saw a red light tower completely covered by waves,” the photographer wrote. “Before the typhoon really hit, the wind in Hualien City and along the coast was already very strong.”

View this post on Instagram

Local news footage captures the same extraordinary phenomenon: waves detonating against the harbor defenses and spray soaring above the lighthouse.

It looks like a 75-foot wave. But there’s an important distinction. The lighthouse’s height provides a scale for the spray and wave run-up, not a verified measurement of a breaking wave face.…