Giant whirlpools off Australian east coast

Started by Lovelynice, March 14, 2007, 10:21:49 AM

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Lovelynice

The sea level off the east Australian coast has dropped by a metre, and two gigantic whirlpools have appeared. Ocean temperatures have dropped by 6*Celsius.
Nobody seems to know what has caused the whirlpools to appear, or created them.
The mysterious whirlpool is 200 kilometres across and 1000 metres deep, reaching the ocean floor. The centre is 100 kilometres from the coast.




Gigantic Whirlpool off Australian coast
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NightBird

Do you have any links to more information? There was a bit in the one story, but... wow...

HairyHeretic

I did a search on google news earlier, it turned up a few hits. It doesn't sound so much a 200km swirling wall of death, as a spot where the ocean has dipped by about a meter. Apparently you could sail through it and not notice it was there.
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TonyWoods

I suppose its still an impressive phenomenon when you think about it, but I was kinda expecting huge visible violent whirlpools sucking ships down to Davey Jones' Locker as if someone had just pulled the plug out of the bottom of the ocean...

I guess I should be happy that isn't the case, but I can't help feeling a little disappointed.

(And at this I would like to point out I bear no specific ill will to the peoples of Australia - although if one of these things was to spring up in the middle of the River Mersey in either the Liverpool or Leeds areas, I would find it extremely hard not to cheer or indeed applaud...)
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Lovelynice

I checked into the phenomenon more, and apparently it's quite common for these giant whirlpools to appear off the Australian coastlines. Usually they're upto several kilometres across, with the largest being 200km diameter and 300m deep. By that standard these two current giant whirlpools are record-breakers, particularly as they go 1000m deep all the way to the sea floor in the area.

The water in these whirlpools can move very fast, several metres per second.
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Akioth

That's a rather chilling thought.....still when I first read it I expected to find out a hole had appeared on the ocean floor or some such, Although the later explanations make much more sense.


Granted are nearly as "exciting" But still, that is quite a oddity....
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NightBird

To me, the 'Wow' (or 'Yo') factor lies in the close relationship between oceanic currents and weather. The earthquake that caused the major tsunami a while back affected the axis of the earth, and the winter after that, there were problems with the Gulf Stream providing a warm current to NW Europe, and as a result, Greece had one of the coldest winters on record. For these to be so much larger and deeper than normal seems like a troubling thing to me, and yeah, I'd heard of them before. It's kind of one of those twitchy feelings that there's stuff going on that science doesn't quite grok.

Lovelynice

Quote from: NightBird on March 15, 2007, 11:29:38 PM
To me, the 'Wow' (or 'Yo') factor lies in the close relationship between oceanic currents and weather. The earthquake that caused the major tsunami a while back affected the axis of the earth, and the winter after that, there were problems with the Gulf Stream providing a warm current to NW Europe, and as a result, Greece had one of the coldest winters on record. For these to be so much larger and deeper than normal seems like a troubling thing to me, and yeah, I'd heard of them before. It's kind of one of those twitchy feelings that there's stuff going on that science doesn't quite grok.

It's perhaps a scary thought for some people that despite all the hype about how great scientific knowledge is in comparison to a hundred years ago, and all those who claim that the major stuff is now "known", that in truth scientists really KNOW very little.

To me, it's comforting that there are still mysteries in the world that make it a wonderful and fascinating place in which the unexpected can catch the arrogant "know-it-alls" off-guard.
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Lilian

Dont worry, it's just the ocean-mother having an orgasm. OHhhhh! XD