We stumbled upon a TikTok where a woman was parasailing and the boat she was attached to was quickly approaching a whirlpool and that whole situation is now haunting our lives, so we thought we would dive deeper, so to speak, into this oceanic phenomenon.
Fast-flowing currents in oceans and rivers are constantly changing direction, and whirlpools are formed when water moving in two different directions comes in contact with each other in interacts in a kind of weird way. They can’t continue to move how they’re moving together, so instead, they move around each other. Whirlpools come in all sizes, some disappear quickly, and some last for centuries, and the largest and most dangerous of all the whirlpools are known as maelstroms which have the power to fatally engulf anyone that comes too close.
Maelstroms aside, find comfort in knowing that a typical whirlpool doesn’t pack a lot of punch. While they’re portrayed in movies, T.V., and even books as being extreme, most are not and dissipate within a matter of a few minutes.
Our burning question is: what is at the bottom of a whirlpool? We could only assume you either end up in a bottomless black pit or the very depths of the ocean where the creepiest creatures lurk. As it turns out, we aren’t completely wrong. Research has found that whirlpools do in fact pull things to the bottom of the sea bed, from there they may move all over the ocean floor being pulled here and there by the current. If the object can float, it will more than likely come back to the surface a long way from where the whirlpool initially was.
There are some world-famous whirlpools out there, so if whirlpools are interesting to you, terrifying to you, or both interesting and terrifying to you, here are some famous ones you can read up on or even check out:
Saltstraumen is the strongest maelstrom in the world. It is located off the coast of Norway near the Arctic Circle. The Saltstraumen forms four times a day as the tides carry large amounts of water through a small channel only 490 feet (150 meters) wide. The currents reach speeds of 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour). When ships must pass through the area, they do so during the short windows of time in which the maelstrom is not active. Thousands of tourists visit the city of Bodø to view the maelstrom at high tide when it is the strongest.
Between Tokushima and Hyogo in Japan, the tidal whirlpool Naruto can form up to 66 feet (20 meters) in diameter. Water enters the narrow Naruto strait at speeds of 12 mph during spring tides.
The Corryvreckan Whirlpools is the third largest whirlpool in the world. It is located in a narrow straight on the north side of Scotland’s Gulf or Corryvreckan. Waves in the area can reach 30 feet (9 meters) in height, and the currents reach speeds of 11 miles per hour (18 kilometers per hour). Corryvreckan may also be the world’s loudest whirlpool, as it can be heard nearly 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. Corryvreckan has been known to pull objects down to a measured depth of 860 feet (262 meters). Corryvreckan is categorized by the British navy as being “very dangerous.”