Scientists of University of Liverpool, UK have discovered ‘smoke rings’ in the Tasman Sea which may ‘suck up’ small marine creatures and carry them at high speed and for long distances across the ocean.
-Researchers found a pair of eddies spinning in opposite directions and linked to each other so that they travel together all the way across the Tasman Sea, taking six months to do it.
-The smoke rings require an area of calm water to ‘puff’ out through, which itself is quite unusual.
-Ocean eddies are often described as swirling motions which mix the water and carry it across the average currents. Actually, the ocean is a huge body of water that is constantly in motion. Normal patterns of ocean flow are called currents. Sometimes theses currents can pinch off sections and create circular currents of water called an eddy.
-The ‘smoke-rings’ are identified as a pair of linked eddies spinning in opposite directions.
-These ‘linked eddies’ are therefore capable of travelling up to ten times the speed of ‘normal’ eddies.
-The ‘smoke-rings’ were spotted in Tasman sea, southwest of Australia and in the South Atlantic, west of South Africa.
