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A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). '' Vortex'' is the proper term for a whirlpool that has a downdraft. In narrow ocean straits with fast flowing water, whirlpools are often caused by
tides Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can ...
. Many stories tell of ships being sucked into a maelstrom, although only smaller craft are actually in danger. Smaller whirlpools appear at river rapids and can be observed downstream of artificial structures such as weirs and dams. Large cataracts, such as Niagara Falls, produce strong whirlpools.


Notable whirlpools


Saltstraumen

Saltstraumen is a narrow strait located close to the
Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...
, south-east of the city of
Bodø Bodø (; smj, Bådåddjo, sv, Bodö) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Bodø (which is also the capital of Nordland count ...
, Norway. It has one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. Whirlpools up to in diameter and in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest.


Moskstraumen

Moskstraumen or Moske-stroom is an unusual system of whirlpools in the open seas in the
Lofoten Islands Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolvær ...
off the Norwegian coast. It is the second strongest whirlpool in the world with flow currents reaching speeds as high as . This is supposedly the whirlpool depicted in Olaus Magnus's map, labeled as "Horrenda Caribdis" (
Charybdis Charybdis (; grc, Χάρυβδις, Khárybdis, ; la, Charybdis, ) is a sea monster in Greek mythology. She, with the sea monster Scylla, appears as a challenge to epic characters such as Odysseus, Jason, and Aeneas. Scholarship locates her in t ...
). The Moskstraumen is formed by the combination of powerful semi-diurnal tides and the unusual shape of the seabed, with a shallow ridge between the Moskenesøya and
Værøy Værøy is an island municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sørland on the main island of Værøya. The other village in Vær ...
islands which amplifies and whirls the tidal currents. The fictional depictions of the Moskstraumen by Edgar Allan Poe,
Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, and
Cixin Liu Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese science fiction writer. He is a nine-time winner of China's Galaxy Award and has also received the 2015 Hugo Award for his novel '' The Three-Body Problem'' as well as the 2017 ...
describe it as a gigantic circular vortex that reaches the bottom of the ocean, when in fact it is a set of currents and crosscurrents with a rate of . Poe described this phenomenon in his short story "
A Descent into the Maelström "A Descent into the Maelström" is an 1841 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. In the tale, a man recounts how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. It has been grouped with Poe's tales of ratiocination and also labeled an early f ...
", which in 1841 was the first to use the word ''maelstrom'' in the English language; in this story related to the Lofoten Maelstrom, two fishermen are swallowed by the maelstrom while one survives.


Corryvreckan

The Corryvreckan is a narrow
strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...
between the islands of Jura and Scarba, in Argyll and Bute, on the northern side of the Gulf of Corryvreckan, Scotland. It is the third-largest whirlpool in the world. Flood
tides Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can ...
and inflow from the Firth of Lorne to the west can drive the waters of Corryvreckan to waves of more than , and the roar of the resulting maelstrom, which reaches speeds of , can be heard away. Though it was classified initially as non-navigable by the Royal Navy it was later categorized as "extremely dangerous". A documentary team from Scottish independent producers Northlight Productions once threw a mannequin into the Corryvreckan ("the Hag") with a
high-visibility vest High-visibility clothing, sometimes shortened to hi vis or hi viz, is any clothing worn that is highly luminescent in its natural matt property or a color that is easily discernible from any background. It is most commonly worn on the torso and ...
and depth gauge. The mannequin was swallowed and spat up far down current with a depth gauge reading of with evidence of being dragged along the bottom for a great distance.


Other notable maelstroms and whirlpools

Old Sow whirlpool Old Sow is the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere, located off the southwestern shore of Deer Island, New Brunswick, Canada, and off the northeast shore of Moose Island, the principal island of Eastport, Maine. Origin The whirlpoo ...
is located between Deer Island, New Brunswick, Canada, and Moose Island, Eastport, Maine, USA. It is given the epithet "pig-like" as it makes a screeching noise when the vortex is at its full fury and reaches speeds of as much as . The smaller whirlpools around this Old Sow are known as "Piglets". The Naruto whirlpools are located in the Naruto Strait near Awaji Island in Japan, which have speeds of . Skookumchuck Narrows is a tidal rapids that develops whirlpools, on the
Sunshine Coast Sunshine Coast may refer to: * Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia **Sunshine Coast Region, a local government area of Queensland named after the region **Sunshine Coast Stadium * Sunshine Coast (British Columbia), geographic subregion of the Br ...
, Canada with speeds of the current exceeding .
French Pass French Pass (; officially Te Aumiti / French Pass) is a narrow and treacherous stretch of water that separates D'Urville Island, at the north end of the South Island of New Zealand, from the mainland coast. At one end is Tasman Bay, and at the ot ...
() is a narrow and treacherous stretch of water that separates D'Urville Island from the north end of the South Island of New Zealand. In 2000 a whirlpool there caught student divers, resulting in fatalities. A short-lived whirlpool sucked in a portion of the Lake Peigneur in
Louisiana, United States Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
after a drilling mishap on November 20, 1980. This was not a naturally occurring whirlpool, but a disaster caused by underwater drillers breaking through the roof of a salt mine. The lake then drained into the mine until the mine filled and the water levels equalized, but the formerly deep lake was now deep. This mishap resulted in the destruction of five houses, the loss of nineteen barges and eight tug boats, oil rigs, a mobile home, trees, acres of land, and most of a botanical garden. The adjacent settlement of Jefferson Island was reduced in area by 10%. A crater across was left behind. Nine of the barges, which had sunk, later resurfaced after the whirlpool subsided. A more recent example of an artificial whirlpool that received significant media coverage occurred in early June 2015, when an intake vortex formed in
Lake Texoma Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, the 12th largest US Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District. Lake Texoma is formed by Denison Dam on the Red River in Bryan County, Oklaho ...
, on the Oklahoma–Texas border, near the floodgates of the dam that forms the lake. At the time of the whirlpool's formation, the lake was being drained after reaching its highest level ever. The Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam and lake, expected that the whirlpool would last until the lake reached normal seasonal levels by late July.


Dangers

Powerful whirlpools have killed unlucky seafarers, but their power tends to be exaggerated by laymen. One of the few reports of large ships ever being sucked into a whirlpool is from the fourteenth-century
Mali Empire The Mali Empire ( Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or Manden; ar, مالي, Māl ...
ruler Mansa Musa, as reported by a contemporary, Al-Umari: Tales like those by
Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, s ...
, Edgar Allan Poe, and
Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
are entirely fictional. However, temporary whirlpools caused by major engineering disasters, such as the Lake Peigneur disaster, have been recorded as capable of submerging medium-sized watercraft such as barges and tugboats.


In literature and popular culture

Besides Poe and Verne, another literary source is of the 1500s, Olaus Magnus, a Swedish bishop, who had stated that a maelstrom more powerful than the one written about in the '' Odyssey'' sucked in ships, which sank to the bottom of the sea, and even whales were pulled in.
Pytheas Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης ''Pythéas ho Massaliōtēs''; Latin: ''Pytheas Massiliensis''; born 350 BC, 320–306 BC) was a Greeks, Greek List of Graeco-Roman geographers, geographer, explor ...
, the Greek historian, also mentioned that maelstroms swallowed ships and threw them up again. The monster
Charybdis Charybdis (; grc, Χάρυβδις, Khárybdis, ; la, Charybdis, ) is a sea monster in Greek mythology. She, with the sea monster Scylla, appears as a challenge to epic characters such as Odysseus, Jason, and Aeneas. Scholarship locates her in t ...
of Greek mythology was later rationalized as a whirlpool, which sucked entire ships into its fold in the narrow coast of Sicily, a disaster faced by navigators. During the 8th century,
Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, s ...
, who had lived among the Belgii, described tidal bores and the maelstrom for a Mediterranean audience unused to such violent tidal surges: Three of the most notable literary references to the Lofoten Maelstrom date from the nineteenth century. The first is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe named "
A Descent into the Maelström "A Descent into the Maelström" is an 1841 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. In the tale, a man recounts how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. It has been grouped with Poe's tales of ratiocination and also labeled an early f ...
" (1841). The second is ''
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-J ...
'' (1870), a novel by
Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
. At the end of this novel,
Captain Nemo Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ( ...
seems to commit suicide, sending his ''Nautilus'' submarine into the Maelstrom (although in Verne's sequel Nemo and the ''Nautilus'' were seen to have survived). The "Norway maelstrom" is also mentioned in Herman Melville, Herman Melville's ''Moby-Dick''. In the ''Life of St Columba'', the author, Adomnan of Iona, attributes to the saint miraculous knowledge of a particular bishop who sailed into a whirlpool off the coast of Ireland. In Adomnan's narrative, he quotes Columba saying The Corryvreckan whirlpool plays a key role in the 1945 Powell and Pressburger film ''I Know Where I'm Going!''. Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) is determined to get to the fictional Isle of Kiloran and marry her fiancé. Dangerous weather delays her crossing, and her determination becomes desperation when she realizes that she is falling in love with Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey). Against the advice of experienced folk, she offers a young fisherman a huge sum of money to take her over. At the last moment, Torquil steps into the boat, and after a squall knocks the engine out of commission, they face the whirlpool. Torquil manages to repair the engine before the tide turns, and they return to the mainland. This part of the picture uses footage Powell filmed, while tied to a mast to leave both hands free for the camera, at Corryvreckan, incorporated into scenes shot in a huge tank at the studio. In the movie ''Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'', the final battle between the ''Black Pearl'' and the ''Flying Dutchman'' takes place with both ships sailing inside a giant whirlpool which appears to be over a kilometer wide and several hundred meters deep.


Etymology

One of the earliest uses in English of the Scandinavian languages, Scandinavian word ''malström'' or ''malstrøm'' was by Edgar Allan Poe in his short story "
A Descent into the Maelström "A Descent into the Maelström" is an 1841 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. In the tale, a man recounts how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. It has been grouped with Poe's tales of ratiocination and also labeled an early f ...
" (1841). The Nordic word itself is derived from the Dutch language, Dutch word ''maelstrom'' (; modern spelling ), from ''malen'' ('to mill' or 'to grind') and ''stroom'' ('stream'), to form the meaning 'grinding current' or literally 'mill-stream', in the sense of milling (grinding) grain. File: A whirlpool in a glass of water.jpg, A whirlpool in a glass of water File: Niagara Whirlpool Spanish Aero Car.jpg, The Niagara Whirlpool File: Tionesta whirlpool.JPG, A small whirlpool in Tionesta Creek in the Allegheny National Forest File:Whirlpool.jpg, A whirlpool in a small pond File: Whirlpool gap in a strong surge DSC03464.jpg, Tide whirlpool in Rooi-Els, Western Cape File: Whirlpool - geograph.org.uk - 115536.jpg, An artificial whirlpool in the Water Garden within Alnwick Garden File:The Eddy and the Plankton - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg, A massive wide deep sea eddy off the coast of South Africa


See also

* Coriolis effect * Eddy (fluid dynamics) * Rip current


References


Further reading

* Baron PA, Willeke K (1986) Respirable droplets from whirlpools: measurements of size distribution and estimation of disease potential. Environ Res 39, 8–18. *


External links


The Demopolis Lock whirlpools
- a powerful artificial whirlpool
Research articles on whirlpools and related topics by Hubert Chanson, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland
{{authority control Natural hazards Vortices Whirlpools,