Whirlpools occur not only in the sinks and baths when draining water. On giant swirling funnels say sea fables and myths, which means that the sailors often met such phenomena in the seas and oceans.
One of the legends about the sunken Atlantis says that the city fell to the bottom after a huge whirl. As you can see, these phenomena are of a creepy nature and are not safe for ships passing by.
The giant whirlpools appearing in the ocean are called "rings"; in English, a ring is a ring. But in terms of shape, they are ordinary whirlpools, like those formed when you drain water in the bath. Only in the ocean they reach a diameter of several kilometers and stay on the surface for days, weeks and months.
"Devil's Sea"
There is one place in the Pacific Ocean, which is notorious. It is located near Ogasawara Island and intersects with the literary phenomenon of the past centuries, 'Devil's Sea. This sea is not on the map, but the writers often mentioned it, as from here came the news about disappeared ships.
About 60 years ago specialists started to study this region. A giant vertical whirlpool was discovered 400 km away from the island, which, according to research, began at a depth of 5 km.
Japanese "ring"
In the heart of the Japanese "ring" there is a recess. The water in it is tens of meters lower than in the surroundings. The whirlpool has a huge power, 10 times more powerful than the strongest current, such as the Gulf Stream. This whirlpool had another inexplicable property - every 100 days it started to rotate in the opposite direction.
The world's ocean can hardly be called a calm environment. There are storms, waves, water column stirred by currents of different directions.
Vertical currents create water funnels. This is due to the movement of water masses from depth to the surface due to different densities, temperatures, salt concentrations recorded at different levels of the water column.
The movements provoke the appearance of whirlpools. They are similar in properties to air "rings" and are also dangerous for others.
Such vortexes were detected in the area of Bermuda Triangle, near Sri Lanka and near the Antarctic coast. Differences in altitudes in the area of rotating giants can reach 200 meters.
There are at least 10 "rings" in the North Atlantic. This is due to the circulation of water in the Gulf Stream. Vortices are separated from the current on the south side and have a warm center.
Displacement of water masses occurs at a speed of up to 5 km per day. Some of them rotate until a year, then pour into the current and break out again in another place. Over the "rings" are often formed by fogs due to the contact of warm air with deep cold water and condensation of vapors.
In addition to wandering islands, unpredictable shoals and stone rocks, there are also dangerous vortexes in the ocean. Modern means of navigation allow you to bypass such places, but before it was impossible to determine where the shallow or funnel, so the ships often sailed into dangerous ponds, and the sailors called certain locations dead places or "Devil's Seas".