Are We Circling the Drain?

This past weekend, tornadoes moved up the east coast, killing dozens of people, and destroying buildings, property, livestock, etc. The effects of the tornadoes were felt as far away as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut, where high winds and isolated flash flooding occurred in certain locations on Saturday night.

However, the east coast tornadoes are not the only atypical funnels to materialize in strange places.  US scientists discovered two giant whirlpools in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Guyana and Suriname.

"It became a sensational discovery because this part of the ocean has been studied thoroughly, and no one expected anything like that to appear in the area. More importantly, no one can understand where the whirlpools came from and what surprises they may bring to people.

According to Brazilian scientist Guilherme Castellane, the two funnels are approximately 400 kilometers in diameter. Until now, these were not known on Earth. The funnels reportedly exert a strong influence on climate changes that have been registered during the recent years.

"Funnels rotate clockwise. They are moving in the ocean like giant frisbees, two discs thrown into the air. Rotation occurs at a rate of one meter per second, the speed is sufficiently large compared to the speed of oceanic currents, on the border hoppers is a wave-step height of 40 cm," Castellane said.