2011/12/06

Tidal Whirlpool




Whirlpool

This article is about the water movement. For other uses, see Whirlpool (disambiguation).

Notable whirlpools

The five strongest whirlpools in the world are the Saltstraumen outside Bodø in Norway, which reaches speeds of 37 km/h (23 mph); the Moskstraumen off the Lofoten islands in Norway (the original maelstrom), which reaches speeds of 27.8 km/h (17.3 mph); the Old Sow in Eastport, Maine, United States, which has been measured with a speed of up to 27.6 km/h (17.1 mph); the Naruto whirlpools in Japan, which have a speed of 20 km/h (12 mph); and the Corryvreckan in Scotland, which reaches speeds of 18 km/h (11 mph).

Powerful whirlpools have killed unlucky seafarers, but their power tends to be exaggerated by laymen. There are virtually no stories of large ships ever being sucked into a whirlpool. Tales like those by Paul the Deacon, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe are entirely fictional. The closest equivalent might have been the short-lived whirlpool that sucked in a portion of Lake Peigneur in New Iberia, Louisiana, USA after a drilling mishap in 1980. This was not a naturally-occurring whirlpool, but a man-made disaster caused by breaking through the roof of a salt mine. The lake then behaved like a gigantic bathtub being drained, until the mine filled and the water levels equalized. Although some boats and semi trailers were pulled into it in the classic whirlpool stereotype, no human lives were lost.

Dangers

In popular imagination, but only rarely in reality, whirlpools can have the dangerous effect of destroying boats. In the 8th century, Paul the Deacon, who had lived among the Belgii, described tidal bores and the maelstrom for a Mediterranean audience unused to such violent tidal surges:

See also

References

Bibliography

External links

Upwelling.svg Circulation Tides

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whirlpool&oldid=457218663
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)