Whirlpool: A natural phenomenon that can’t be predicted

Fast-flowing currents in oceans and rivers constantly change direction. Whirlpools are phenomena that occur when water moving in two different directions comes into contact with one another and interact in a rather unusual way. They can’t continue to travel at the same speed and direction through each other, so they are forced to turn and swirl around each other, often forming a vortex shape. Depending on the volume of water and force of colliding waters, whirlpools can appear in different sizes. Some whirlpools form and disappear over a short period of time, while some water systems keep whirlpools for centuries. The larger and more dangerous whirlpools are called maelstroms, capable of fatally engulfing anyone who comes too close.

Many people commonly believe whirlpools are bottomless pits, but that’s not really the case. Experiments have shown that whirlpools often pull objects to the bottom of the sea bed. They may then be moved along the seafloor by ocean currents. If the object can float, it may come back to the surface a long way from where the whirlpool was. As a fun fact, because of the Coriolis effect (i.e., the force of the Earth’s rotation), large whirlpools in the Northern Hemisphere tend to rotate counterclockwise, while whirlpools in the Southern Hemisphere tend to rotate clockwise.

Researchers have recorded a bizarre phenomenon in fluid dynamics, which has been theoretically predicted before but never really occurred in nature: they have observed whirlpools swirling in tandem for the first time across the Tasman Sea, where two connected ones are spiraling in opposite directions. Whirlpools almost always head westwards, but by pairing up they can move to the east and travel ten times as fast as a single whirlpool, so they can carry water in unusual directions across the ocean.

Lately, there’s been talk surrounding a bizarre, flying “whirlpool” that appears in the night sky above Hawaii in January 2023. Though this necessarily isn’t a whirlpool forming in the water, it’s still a neat sighting that left many awe-stricken and puzzled at the time. It was later figured out that the spiral was related to the SpaceX company’s launch of a new satellite — so much for aliens! SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral on January 18 early in the morning. Ejected its remaining fuel while flying in orbit, sunlight illuminated the spiral of frozen fuel, creating this wondrous pattern above the Pacific Ocean.

Whirlpools aren’t as destructive as they are depicted in fiction and sci-fi entertainment movies, such as the whirlpool battle in Pirates of the Caribbean. However, they do pose danger to people and small boats. Most people won’t experience the entrapment of a whirlpool’s force but for many, such as kayakers, it is useful to know how to survive one. Get ready for the big one!