Whirlpool

A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by

opposing currents or a current running into an
obstacle.[1] Small whirlpools form when a bath or a
sink is draining. More powerful ones in seas or oceans
may be termed maelstroms (/ˈmeɪlstrɒm, -rəm/ MAYL-
strom, -⁠strəm). Vortex is the proper term for a
whirlpool that has a downdraft.

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.[2] Smaller The Gulf of Corryvreckan whirlpool in Scotland is
whirlpools appear at river rapids[3] and can be the third-largest whirlpool in the world.
observed downstream of artificial structures such as
weirs and dams. Large cataracts, such as Niagara
Falls, produce strong whirlpools.

Contents
Notable whirlpools
Saltstraumen
Moskstraumen
Corryvreckan
Other notable maelstroms and whirlpools
Dangers
In literature and popular culture
Etymology
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Notable whirlpools

Saltstraumen

Saltstraumen is a narrow strait located close to the Arctic Circle,[4] 33 km (20 mi) south-east of the city of
Bodø, Norway.
It has one of the strongest tidal currents in the world.[5][4] Whirlpools up to 10 metres
(33 ft) in diameter and 5 metres (16 ft) in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest.
Moskstraumen

Moskstraumen or Moske-stroom is an unusual system

of whirlpools in the open seas in the Lofoten Islands
off the Norwegian coast.[6] It is the second strongest
whirlpool in the world with flow currents reaching
speeds as high as 32  km/h (20  mph).[4] This is
supposedly the whirlpool depicted in Olaus Magnus's
map, labeled as "Horrenda Caribdis" (Charybdis).[7]

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 Saltstraumen
Moskenesøya and Værøy islands which amplifies and
whirls the tidal currents.[8]

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 18 km/h (11 mph).[9] Poe
described this phenomenon in his short story A
Descent into the Maelstrom, which during 1841 was
the first to use the word "maelstrom" in the English
language;[8] in this story related to the Lofoten
Maelstrom, two fishermen are swallowed by the
maelstrom while one survives.[10] The maelstrom off Norway as illustrated by Olaus
Magnus on the Carta Marina, 1539.

Corryvreckan

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.[4] Flood tides and inflow from the Firth of Lorne to the west
can drive the waters of Corryvreckan to waves of more than 9
metres (30  ft), and the roar of the resulting maelstrom, which
reaches speeds of 18 km/h (11 mph), can be heard 16 km (10 mi)
away. Though it was classified initially as non-navigable by the
Corryvreckan whirlpool.
Royal Navy it was later categorized as "extremely dangerous".[4]

A documentary team from Scottish independent producers Northlight Productions once threw a mannequin
into the Corryvreckan ("the Hag") with a high-visbility vest and depth gauge. The mannequin was
swallowed and spat up far down current with a depth gauge reading of 262 m (860 ft) with evidence of
being dragged along the bottom for a great distance.[11]

Other notable maelstroms and whirlpools

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 27.6 km/h (17.1 mph).[8] The smaller whirlpools around this Old
Sow are known as "Piglets".[4]

The Naruto whirlpools are located in the Naruto Strait

near Awaji Island in Japan, which have speeds of
26 km/h (16 mph).[8]

Skookumchuck Narrows is a tidal rapids that develops

whirlpools, on the Sunshine Coast, Canada with
speeds of the current exceeding 30 km/h (19 mph).[8]

French Pass (Te Aumiti) is a narrow and treacherous

stretch of water that separates D'Urville Island from Naruto whirlpools.
the north end of the South Island of New Zealand.
During 2000 a whirlpool there caught student divers,
resulting in fatalities.[12]

A short-lived whirlpool sucked in a portion of the 1,300-acre (530 ha) 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 10-foot (3.0 m) deep lake was
now 1,300 feet (400 m) deep. This mishap resulted in the destruction of five houses, 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 0.5 miles (0.8 km) across was
left behind. Nine of the barges, which had sunk, later resurfaced after the whirlpool subsided.[13][14][15]

A more recent example of an artificial whirlpool that received significant media coverage occurred during
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.[16]

Dangers
Powerful whirlpools have killed unlucky seafarers, but their power
tends to be exaggerated by laymen.[17] One of the few reports of
large ships ever being sucked into a whirlpool is from the
fourteenth century Mali Empire ruler Mansa Musa, as reported by a
contemporary, Al-Umari:

The ruler who preceded me did not believe that it was

impossible to reach the extremity of the ocean that
encircles the earth (meaning Atlantic), and wanted to
reach that (end) and obstinately persisted in the design. An illustration from Jules Verne's
So he equipped two hundred boats full of men, like essay "Edgard Poë et ses oeuvres"
many others full of gold, water and victuals sufficient (Edgar Poe and his Works, 1862)
enough for several years. He ordered the chief drawn by Frederic Lix or Yan'
(admiral) not to return until they had reached the Dargent.
extremity of the ocean, or if they had exhausted the
provisions and the water. They set out. Their absence
extended over a long period, and, at last, only one boat
returned. On our questioning, the captain said: 'Prince,
 we have navigated for a long time, until we saw in the
midst of the ocean as if a big river was flowing
violently. My boat was the last one; others were ahead
of me. As soon as any of them reached this place, it
drowned in the whirlpool and never came out. I sailed
backward to escape this current.'[18]

Tales like those by Paul the Deacon, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jules Verne are entirely fictional.[19]

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.[20]

In literature and popular culture

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.

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.[21]

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:[22]

Not very far from this shore... toward the western side, on which the ocean main lies open
without end, is that very deep whirlpool of waters which we call by its familiar name "the
navel of the sea". This is said to suck in the waves and spew them forth again twice every day.
... They say there is another whirlpool of this kind between the island of Britain and the
province of Galicia, and with this fact the coasts of the Seine region and of Aquitaine agree,
for they are filled twice a day with such sudden inundations that any one who may by chance
be found only a little inward from the shore can hardly getaway. I have heard a certain high
nobleman of the Gauls relating that a number of ships, shattered at first by a tempest, were
afterward devoured by this same Charybdis. And when one only out of all the men who had
been in these ships, still breathing, swam over the waves, while the rest were dying, he came,
swept by the force of the receding waters, up to the edge of that most frightful abyss. And
when now he beheld yawning before him the deep chaos whose end he could not see, and half
dead from very fear, expected to be hurled into it, suddenly in a way that he could not have
hoped he was cast upon a certain rock and sat him down.

— Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards, i.6

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
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (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.[23]
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[24]

Cólman mac Beognai has set sail to come here and is now in great danger in the surging tides
of the whirlpool of Corryvreckan. Sitting in the prow, he lifts up his hands to heaven and
blesses the turbulent, terrible seas. Yet the Lord terrifies him in this way, not so that the ship in
which he sits should be overwhelmed and wrecked by the waves, but rather to rouse him to
pray more fervently that he may sail through the peril and reach us here.

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 fictional Isle of Kiloran and marry her
fiancé. Dangerous weather delays her crossing, and her determination becomes desperation 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, 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.[25]

In the movie 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.

Etymology
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 (pronounced [ˈmaːlstroːm] ( listen); modern spelling maalstroom), 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.[26]

Whirlpools


A whirlpool in a glass of water The Niagara Whirlpool

A small whirlpool in Tionesta A whirlpool in a small pond

Creek in the Allegheny National
Forest


Tide whirlpool in Rooi-Els, An artificial whirlpool in the Water

Western Cape Garden within Alnwick Garden

A massive 150  km (93  mi) wide

deep sea eddy off the coast of
South Africa

See also
Coriolis effect
Eddy (fluid dynamics)
Rip current

References
1. "Whirlpool - Facts and Information" (https://www.phenomena.org/ocean/whirlpool/). World of
Phenomena. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
2. 10 Magnificent Maelstroms (http://webecoist.com/2009/07/24/10-magnificent-maelstroms-an
d-destructive-whirlpools). WebEcoist. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
3. Carreck, Rosalind, ed. (1982). The Family Encyclopedia of Natural History. The Hamlyn
Publishing Group. p. 246. ISBN 0-7112-0225-7.
4. Doyle, James (1 March 2012). A Young Scientist's Guide to Defying Disasters (https://books.
google.com/books?id=nD_eUzeJZM8C&pg=PA15). Gibbs Smith. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-4236-
2441-7.
 5. "Er Saltstraumen egentlig verdens sterkeste tidevannsstrøm?" (http://www.nrk.no/nordland/e
r-saltstraumen-egentlig-verdens-sterkeste-tidevannsstrom_-1.12929482) (English: Is
Saltstraumen really the worlds strongest tidal current?), from NRK (www.nrk.no), 7 May
2016, Accessed 17 January 2021
6. Encyclopædia Britannica, 1958 edition.
7. Nigg, Joseph (2014), Sea Monsters: A Voyage around the World's Most Beguiling Map (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=BT2NAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA122), University of Chicago
Press, p. 122, ISBN 978-0-226-92518-9
8. Compton, Nic (28 July 2013). Why Sailors Can't Swim and Other Marvellous Maritime
Curiosities (https://books.google.com/books?id=TWwQAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA78). Bloomsbury
Publishing. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-1-4081-9263-4.
9. 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 Gjevik, B.; Moe, H.; Ommundsen, A. (1997). "Sources of the
Maelstrom" (https://web.archive.org/web/20040414111611/http://www.math.uio.no/~bjorng/m
oskstraumen/bilder/article.pdf) (PDF). Nature. 388 (6645): 837–838.
Bibcode:1997Natur.388..837G (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997Natur.388..837G).
doi:10.1038/42159 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F42159). S2CID 205030149 (https://api.sema
nticscholar.org/CorpusID:205030149). Archived from the original (http://www.math.uio.no/~bj
orng/moskstraumen/bilder/article.pdf) (PDF) on 14 April 2004.
10. James Kenney (19 December 2012). Thriving in the Crosscurrent: Clarity and Hope in a
Time of Cultural Sea Change (https://books.google.com/books?id=iE9bBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA
143). Quest Books. pp. 143–. ISBN 978-0-8356-3019-1.
11. "Equinox: Lethal Seas" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140320021700/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/
sift/title/680755). Archived from the original (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/680755) on 20
March 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2016. UK and US co-production by Northlight, "Lethal
Seas" UK Channel 4, "Sea Twister!" US Discovery Channel, covers several notable
maelstroms.
12. Smith, I R (14 April 2003). "In the matter of an inquest into the deaths of Narelle Taniko te
Pure, Ricki Graeme McDonald and Michael David Welsh" (http://divenewzealand.co.nz/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/frenchpass.pdf) (PDF). Nelson District Coroner – via Dive New
Zealand.
13. Stephen Pile (4 October 2012). The Not Terribly Good Book of Heroic Failures: An intrepid
selection from the original volumes (https://books.google.com/books?id=E_qS4RW5nw0C&
pg=PT146). Faber & Faber. pp. 146–. ISBN 978-0-571-27734-6.
14. Richard Heggen (16 January 2015). Underground Rivers: From the River Styx to the Rio
San Buenaventura, with occasional diversions (https://books.google.com/books?id=7zczBg
AAQBAJ&pg=PA1108). Richard Heggen. pp. 1108–. GGKEY:BS7JB1BB957.
15. "And away goes the lake down the drain!" (http://members.tripod.com/%7Eearthdude1/texac
o/texaco.html). Archive of tripod.com. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
16. Smith, Chelsi (8 June 2015). "Levels at Lake Texoma decrease; rare look at intake vortex" (h
ttp://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/Levels-at-Lake-Texoma-decrease-rare-look-at-intake-vort
ex-306557501.html). Sherman, TX: KXII-TV. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
17. MythBusters Episode 56: Killer Whirlpool (http://mythbustersresults.com/episode56).
Mythbustersresults.com. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
18. Mohammed Hamidullah. "Echos of What Lies Behind the 'Ocean of Fogs' in Muslim
Historical Narratives" (http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=646).
Muslim Heritage. Retrieved 27 June 2015. (Quoting from Al-Umari 1927, q.v.)
19. 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 Sea
(1870).
20. "An 'End of the World' Scene: Earth Swallows Lake, Oil Rig - The Washington Post" (https://
www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/11/22/an-end-of-the-world-scene-earth-swal
lows-lake-oil-rig/2ad5eddb-fbe0-46d3-b8b3-db18bd3266ac/).
21. Andrews, Tamra (2000). Dictionary of Nature Myths: Legends of the Earth, Sea, and Sky (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=7jS65aClvFEC&pg=PA171). Oxford University Press.
p. 171. ISBN 978-0-19-513677-7. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
22. Deacon, Paul the (3 June 2011). History of the Lombards (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=zt3jZ69vJKQC&pg=PA8). University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-8122-0558-
9.
23. Herman Melville Moby-Dick Chapter 36, Wikisource.
24. Adomnan of Iona. Life of St Columba. Penguin Books, 1995
25. "I Know Where I'm Going (1945) - Articles - TCM.com" (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/7881
2/I-Know-Where-I-m-Going/articles.html). Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
26. The Merriam-Webster new book of word histories (https://archive.org/details/merriamwebster
ne00merr). Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1991. p. 300 (https://archive.org/details/merriamwebsterne
00merr/page/300). ISBN 978-0-87779-603-9. Retrieved 25 May 2016.

Further reading
Baron PA, Willeke K (1986) Respirable droplets from whirlpools: measurements of size
distribution and estimation of disease potential. Environ Res 39, 8–18.
Blake, John Lauris (1845). The Wonders of the Ocean (https://archive.org/details/wondersof
oceanco00blak). Henry & Sweetlands. pp. 50 (https://archive.org/details/wondersofoceanco
00blak/page/50)–53.

External links
The Demopolis Lock whirlpools (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4DGICW5_6I) - a
powerful artificial whirlpool

Research articles on whirlpools and related topics by Hubert Chanson, Department of Civil
Engineering, The University of Queensland (http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/list/author_id/19
3/)

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