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A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell). Vortex is the proper term for a whirlpool that has a downdraft.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In narrow ocean straits with fast flowing water, whirlpools are often caused by tides. Many stories tell of ships being sucked into a maelstrom, although only smaller craft are actually in danger.<ref>10 Magnificent Maelstroms. WebEcoist. Retrieved 26 October 2011.</ref> Smaller whirlpools appear at river rapids<ref name="fenh">Template:Cite book</ref> and can be observed downstream of artificial structures such as weirs and dams. Large cataracts, such as Niagara Falls, produce strong whirlpools.
Notable whirlpoolsEdit
SaltstraumenEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Saltstraumen is a narrow strait located close to the Arctic Circle,<ref name="Doyle2012">Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Convert south-east of the city of Bodø, Norway. It has one of the strongest tidal currents in the world.<ref>"Er Saltstraumen egentlig verdens sterkeste tidevannsstrøm?" (English: Is Saltstraumen really the worlds strongest tidal current?), from NRK (www.nrk.no), 7 May 2016, Accessed 17 January 2021</ref><ref name="Doyle2012"/> Whirlpools up to Template:Convert in diameter and Template:Convert in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest.
MoskstraumenEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Moskstraumen or Moske-stroom is an unusual system of whirlpools in the open seas in the Lofoten Islands off the Norwegian coast.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 1958 edition.</ref> It is the second strongest whirlpool in the world with flow currents reaching speeds as high as Template:Convert.<ref name="Doyle2012" /> This is supposedly the whirlpool depicted in Olaus Magnus's map, labeled as "Horrenda Caribdis" (Charybdis).<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
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 Værøya islands which amplifies and whirls the tidal currents.<ref name="Compton2013">Template:Cite book</ref>
The fictional depictions of the Moskstraumen by Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, and Cixin Liu 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 Template:Convert.<ref>B. Gjevik, H. Moe and A Ommundseb, "Strong Topographic Enhancement of Tidal Currents: Tales of the Maelstrom", University of Oslo, working paper, 5 September 1997. A condensed version published as Template:Cite journal</ref> Poe described this phenomenon in his short story "A Descent into the Maelström", which in 1841 was the first to use the word maelstrom in the English language;<ref name="Compton2013" /> in this story related to the Lofoten Maelstrom, two fishermen are swallowed by the maelstrom while one survives.<ref name="Kenney2012">Template:Cite book</ref>
CorryvreckanEdit
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The Corryvreckan is a narrow strait 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.<ref name="Doyle2012"/> Flood tides and inflow from the Firth of Lorne to the west can drive the waters of Corryvreckan to waves of more than Template:Convert, and the roar of the resulting maelstrom, which reaches speeds of Template:Convert, can be heard Template:Convert away. Though it was classified initially as non-navigable by the Royal Navy it was later categorized as "extremely dangerous".<ref name=" Doyle2012"/>
A documentary team from Scottish independent producers Northlight Productions once threw a mannequin into the Corryvreckan ("the Hag") with a high-visibility vest and depth gauge. The mannequin was swallowed and spat up far down current with a depth gauge reading of Template:Convert and evidence of being dragged along the bottom for a great distance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} UK and US co-production by Northlight, "Lethal Seas" UK Channel 4, "Sea Twister!" US Discovery Channel, covers several notable maelstroms.</ref>
Niagara WhirlpoolEdit
About three miles (4.8 kilometers) downstream from Niagara Falls is the Niagara Whirlpool. Located mostly in Canada and partially in the United States, the whirlpool is crossed by the Whirlpool Aero Car.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The basin of the whirlpool is 1,700 feet (518 meters) long and 1,200 feet (365 meters) wide. Its maximum water depth is 125 feet (38 meters).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Other notable maelstroms and whirlpoolsEdit
Old Sow whirlpool 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 Template:Convert.<ref name="Compton2013" /> The smaller whirlpools around this Old Sow are known as "Piglets".<ref name="Doyle2012" />
The Naruto whirlpools are located in the Naruto Strait near Awaji Island in Japan, which have speeds of Template:Convert.<ref name="Compton2013" />
Skookumchuck Narrows is a tidal rapids that develops whirlpools, on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada with speeds of the current exceeding Template:Convert.<ref name="Compton2013" />
French Pass ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A short-lived whirlpool sucked in a portion of the Template:Convert Lake Peigneur in Louisiana, United States 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 Template:Convert deep lake was now Template:Convert deep. This mishap caused a sinkhole, and in the end, 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 Template:Convert across was left behind. Nine of the barges, which had sunk, later resurfaced after the whirlpool subsided.<ref name="Pile2012">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Heggen2015">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Recovery>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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, 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
DangersEdit
Powerful whirlpools have killed unlucky seafarers, but their power tends to be exaggerated by laymen.<ref>Template:Usurped. Mythbustersresults.com. Retrieved 26 October 2011.</ref> One of the few reports of a large disaster comes from the fourteenth-century Mali Empire ruler Mansa Musa, as reported by a contemporary, Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari:Template:Quote
Tales like those by Paul the Deacon, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jules Verne are entirely fictional.<ref>Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards (8th century AD); Edgar Allan Poe, "A Descent into the Maelström" (1841); and Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870).</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In literature and popular cultureEdit
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, the Greek historian, also mentioned that maelstroms swallowed ships and threw them up again.Template:Cn
The monster Charybdis 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.<ref name="Andrews2000">Template:Cite book</ref>
During 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:<ref name="Deacon2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
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" (1841). The second is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), a novel by Jules Verne. At the end of this novel, Captain Nemo 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's Moby-Dick.<ref>Herman Melville Moby-Dick Chapter 36, Wikisource.</ref>
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<ref>Adomnan of Iona. Life of St Columba. Penguin Books, 1995</ref>
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 Isle of Kiloran and marry her fiancé. Dangerous weather delays her crossing, and her determination becomes desperate 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, Royal Naval Officer 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the 2007 film 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. The fantasy novels Eldest and The Bellmaker (otherwise unconnected) both feature a scene where the protagonists' ship escapes pursuit by successfully navigating a massive whirlpool, while the pursuing vessel fails to do so and is dragged under.
EtymologyEdit
One of the earliest uses in English of the Scandinavian word malström or malstrøm was by Edgar Allan Poe in his short story "A Descent into the Maelström" (1841). The Nordic word itself is derived from the Dutch word maelstrom ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; modern spelling {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Baron PA, Willeke K (1986) Respirable droplets from whirlpools: measurements of size distribution and estimation of disease potential. Environ Res 39, 8–18.
- Template:Cite book
External linksEdit
- The Demopolis Lock whirlpools - a powerful artificial whirlpool
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