|
Arabic
Bengali
Chinese
English
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese|
WONDERS OF NATURE
Maelstrom. Nature miracle
"... The schooner seemed to hang, delayed by some magical force, halfway into the abyss, on the inner surface of a huge round funnel of incredible depth; its completely smooth walls could be mistaken for ebony if they did not rotate at breakneck speed... Looking around and peering into the huge black abyss, along the walls of which we circled, I noticed that our ship was not the only prey captured by the maw of the whirlpool. Above and below us we could see the wreckage of ships, huge logs, tree trunks and a mass of small objects - boxes, boards, barrels, and the latter, it seemed to me, were moving down to the black mouth, more slowly than heavier things: boats, logs or pieces of ship plating ... I decided to tie myself as tightly as possible to the barrel, which I was holding on to, cut off the lashings that fastened it to the stern, and throw myself into the water ... Perhaps an hour passed after I left the schooner, which had already managed to descend significantly lower than me, when suddenly it quickly turned over three or four times, dived into the abyss and disappeared forever from sight in the raging foam ... "
This monologue, similar to an excerpt from a fantasy horror novel, surprisingly, has a very real basis. The place in question is not so far away - off the coast of Norway, and the formidable natural phenomenon that periodically occurs in this area is not caused by otherworldly or alien factors at all. But in order to understand how an ominous whirlpool is formed, let's start a little from afar. The largest and widest bay in Norway - the Vestfjord - borders from the west, from the Atlantic side, the rocky ridge of the Lofoten Islands. Like a giant pier, it cuts the swift flow of the North Atlantic Current coming from the south along the coast, sending half of it deep into the West Fjord. It must be said that in shape this bay resembles a huge 250-kilometer funnel, the narrow end of which is curved to the east and deeply protrudes into the land. The main water area of the bay is elongated from the southwest to the northeast, and its northern edge is almost completely blocked by islands, leaving only narrow straits for the powerful current to exit. Vessels sailing in the Vestfjord are forced to contend with whirlpools and breakers that arise where the current squeezes its entire mass into the narrow stone crevices of the straits. But funnel-shaped bays, like the Westfjord, have another property that is unpleasant for sailors: the tidal wave, entering its continuously narrowing throat, is constantly growing, sometimes reaching enormous heights. It is this shape that all sea bays are famous for especially high tides: the Canadian Bay of Fundy, where the water rises to 19 meters, the Penzhinskaya Bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, La Plata Bay and others. And when a gigantic wave of a tidal wave, going from west to east (or vice versa, if the tide is low), is superimposed on the mighty stream of the current, roaring and roaring north in the narrow passages between the islands, then a giant whirlpool is formed near the Lofoten Islands, from ancient since then, it has inspired horror not only to fishermen in their fragile boats and small boats, but also to the captains of large sailing ships that plowed the waters of the Vestfjord. His name is known to many of the books. This is Maelstrom. It occurs twice a day between the islands of Lofoten and Mosestro (or simply Moske), on the western side of the Vestfjord. Many chilling stories are told by old sailors about the terrible depths of the Maelstrom. Yes, and classic writers paid tribute to the terrible whirlpool. Remember, it is here that the captives of Captain Nemo flee in a boat from the Nautilus in distress in Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. The French science fiction writer remarks in passing that ships are afraid to approach the Maelstrom closer than fifteen kilometers! You are probably also familiar with the story of Edgar Allan Poe "The Fall into the Maelstrom", excerpts from which this essay began. And here is how a Norwegian scientist of the XNUMXth century described this unique natural phenomenon: “At high tide, the current between Lofoten and Mosque violently rushes to the shore, but the deafening rumble with which it rushes back to the sea at low tide can hardly be compared even with the noise of the most powerful waterfalls. This rumble is heard for several tens of kilometers, and the depth and the size of the pits and sinkholes that form here are such that a ship that falls into their sphere of attraction is inevitably caught in a whirlpool, sinks to the bottom, and there breaks on stones, when the sea calms, the wreckage brings to the surface.But this calm comes only between high tide and low tide and lasts only a quarter of an hour, after which the excitement again gradually increases.When the current is raging and its fury is still intensified by a storm, it is dangerous to approach this place at a distance of a Norwegian mile.Schoons, yachts, ships, not noticing the danger in time, perish in the abyss.Often it happens that the whales, which find themselves too close to this cauldron, fall prey to an angry flood; and it is impossible to describe their furious roar,when they try in vain to swim. Once a bear, which was sailing from Lofoten to Mosca, was sucked into a funnel, and he roared so that his roar could be heard on the shore. The huge trunks of pines and firs, swallowed up by the whirlpool, carry back in such a torn form that the chips stick out of them like bristles ... " The Maelstrom first appeared on maps in the XNUMXth century, when the famous Mercator Atlas was published. But even before that, the story of the whirlpool could be read in the notes of the English merchant Jenkinson, who traveled through the northern seas to Russia on trade business. The merchant, however, not being a sailor, was more afraid of the infernal noise emitted by the Maelstrom than his terrible funnel. Here are lines from his diary: “I note that between the so-called islands of Rost and Lofut there is a whirlpool called Maelstrom, which from the middle of the low tide to the middle of the high tide makes such a terrible roar that for ten miles around the doorbells ring on the houses in the fishing villages. If the whales fall into the jet of the whirlpool ", they cry plaintively. And if large trees are dragged inside by the force of the stream, and then thrown up with the ebb, then their ends and branches are so shattered that they look like frayed ropes. " According to legend, the rampage of the elements reached a particularly terrible scale on Palm Sunday in 1645, when the ferocious power of the rotating waves intensified due to a terrifying storm that raged off the coast. The roar of the Maelstrom, according to the stories, reached such strength that stone houses were destroyed in the villages on the nearby islands! What is true and what is fiction in these semi-legendary stories? And is there a whirlpool in nature that draws in sea vessels? Of course, both the medieval traveler and the scientist who lived three centuries ago, and after them the respected Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne, slightly thickened the colors, describing the fury and immense power of a giant water whirlwind. The Westfjord has been and still is the scene of a busy shipping industry. In addition to numerous fishing villages, a large modern port of Narvik is located on its coast. A railway was laid here from the deposits of Sweden, and through the ice-free Norwegian port, Swedish iron ore is exported all year round to many European countries. Huge modern ore carriers are not particularly afraid of the Maelstrom, and its scale is not as great as venerable writers assured their readers. But even modern sailing warns against trying to pass into the three-mile strait north of Mosque Island at high tide, especially if a gale from the west has created a steep wave. This often happens in winter, and then the roar of the Maelstrom, spreading over three miles, really makes seasoned fishermen cringe. In the strait, replete with underwater rocks, water rushes at this time at a speed of 11 kilometers per hour, which causes eddies and whirlpools, turning it into an insurmountable labyrinth with unpredictable changes in currents. Therefore, the pilot rightly calls the Maelstrom the most dangerous tidal current off the Norwegian coast. By the way, 55 miles south of Lofoten, near the popular seaside resort of Bodo, there is another whirlpool, less known, though more significant in terms of the mass of water involved in the movement. It is called Salstraumen, after the strait of the same name, where it is observed. Directly from the windows of the hotels of the resort town in the summer, when the sun hardly sets here, you can watch twice a day how a huge shaft of water breaks into the strait with a roar that can be heard for miles around. At these moments, even the eye can see the curvature of the sea surface in the place of the whirlpool. And lovers of fishing right from the shore with might and main catch fish half-stunned by the whirlpool. But the Maelstrom, even inferior to Salstraumen in the amount of water, remains more dangerous because of its cunning. The strength and speed of the currents in it change depending on the time of year, the winds and the phases of the moon, so seafaring experience and engine power are far from always helping out a careless captain. Therefore, the Lofoten fishermen, even now, going out to fish, strive to slip through the Maelstrom area in the interval between high tide and low tide. They know that even modern motorboats and seiners better not fall into the clutches of a whirlpool, whose wild power is multiplied by natural deceit, and the sharp rocks around will not leave a chance for salvation in the event of an accident. And tourists traveling around Norway also prefer to watch the Maelstrom from the coastal cliffs. After all, no matter how attractive the spectacle of the riot of the elements, whether it be volcanic eruptions, the furious running of mountain streams, floods, tornadoes or sea disasters, yet the mighty forces of nature are far from always amenable to taming. And admiring their power and greatness, we willy-nilly treat them with respectful respect. Author: B.Wagner
Artificial leather for touch emulation
15.04.2024 Petgugu Global cat litter
15.04.2024 The attractiveness of caring men
14.04.2024
▪ Hydrogen from plants - the basis of future energy ▪ Radio beacons track Android and iOS devices ▪ The world's oceans have become deeper by 8 centimeters ▪ Under the gaze of the machine
▪ section of the site Application of microcircuits. Article selection ▪ article One-wheel motor plow. Drawing, description ▪ Article What is Civilization? Detailed answer ▪ article Regulator engineer of radio-electronic equipment and devices. Job description ▪ article CD-ROM based CD player. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering
Home page | Library | Articles | Website map | Site Reviews
www.diagram.com.ua |
We recommend interesting articles Section 
See other articles Section 
Latest news of science and technology, new electronics:
All languages of this page