The Mystery of Smoky Ocean Eddies

Researchers at the University of Liverpool claim to have spotted something similar to smoke rings in the ocean. They believe that these smoke rings have the power to suck up small marine animals and carry them up to a great distance and at a great speed across the ocean.

The ocean has a large number of eddies (circular motion of water) that run for hundreds of kilometres, mix the water and carry it across the ocean. The smoky rings are similar eddies but running at a much higher speed. The rings of these are cut in half by the sea surface which leads to only two ends of the half ring being visible. A paper published in a journal called- Geophysical Research Letters', stated that the smoky rings were discovered by analysing the sea level measurement that had been taken from satellites along with the temperature of the sea surface at the same time and same place.

These smoky rings get puffed up due to an area of calm water, which is a very unusual and hard to believe concept. The concerned researcher mentioned that he had taken a look at the other ocean areas in Australia and South Atlantic and has realised that those were linked, fast moving eddies that had the ability to suck up small aquatic creatures and carry them to far off distances in the ocean at a very great speed.

While the argument remains open, we would love to see an end to this and find out what the concept actually is.

By: Srishti Anand

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171211105014.htm