wyspy: Whirlpool

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Miniature whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( 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. Small whirlpools appear at river rapids and can be observed downstream of artificial structures such as weirs and dams. Large cataracts, such as Niagara Falls, produce strong…

Evidence: 39 • authority: 72

Moskstraumen or Moskenstraumen, also known as the Lofoten maelstrom, is a system of tidal eddies and whirlpools, one of the strongest in the world, that forms at the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway between the Norwegian Sea and the Vestfjorden. It is located between the Lofoten Point (Norwegian: Lofotodden) on the island of Moskenesøya (in Moskenes Municipality) and the island of Mosken (in Værøy Municipality). Moskstraumen is unusual in that it occurs in the open sea, whereas most other tidal flows are observed in confined straits or rivers. It originates from a combination of several factors, the dominant being the strong semi-diurnal tides and peculiar shape of the seabed,…