Amazing Ocean Mysteries and Phenomena

K
Halcyon Yachts said:
10 Amazing Ocean Mysteries and Phenomena: How many of them have you seen?

http://www.marineinsight.com/marine/top-10-amazing-ocean-mysteries-and-phenomena/

Pete
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2 bioluminescence and 9 sea foam. They are regular phenomena in our waters.
3 convergence of Baltic and North Seas: not exactly that, but a similar phenomenon can be seen at the mouth of rivers where a sharp demarcation is obvious between the salt seawater and the river water, which is usually a different colour. This boundary can be followed for miles, eg the mouth of Rhine/Maas at Rotterdam, or on a smaller scale the mouth of the Ijzer river at my homeport of Nieuwpoort.
 
Red tide at Dawlish after heavy rain.

Sea foam - at Fistral during a storm it gets so bad it covers the car park like an Ibiza night club foam party!

Bioluminescence- not like in the picture it was more like green flashes and I thought it was called phosphorescence or is that something different?
 
Sea foam and bio-luminescence though it was thousands of cephelopods rather than micro-organisms. Iv'e seen red tide warning signs at Dawlish but missed the actual event.
I'm not sure I believe in the green flash - I spent 2 weeks with the Dutch Navy in ideal conditions and nobody saw it. The consensus among the Navy dudes was that it is a trick of the mind as the colour temperature changes rapidly. Certainly, all the videos of the phenomona seem heavily 'shopped.
 
There is quite a few on the list I haven’t seen. Particularly the ones on the bottom of the sea.

A few I have.
The Green Flash. I’ve seen it many times. It may be an optical illusion but its still real. The last rays of the sun appear green just as it drops bellow a clear horizon.

Sea Smoke is a fog type. Common in areas where cold air flows across relatively warmer water.
Its also known as lake steam in the Great lakes. Looks like the sea is boiling or burning.

Red tide is a frequent occurrence here. Usually followed by warnings not to eat shell fish. An old fisherman told me feed the cat first. If it survives its ok.

Herring spawn is kind of neat.

Bio lumminnesance? Well I’ve seen phosphorescence particularly when I pee overboard.

Sea Foam seen it after a strong on shore wind. particularly when walking the dog

Not mentioned but kind of cool is refraction. Best in cold clear weather ships appear to be upside down. Land is stretched up and can sometimes be seen beyond the normal horizon.
 
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planteater said:
Sea foam and bio-luminescence though it was thousands of cephelopods rather than micro-organisms. Iv'e seen red tide warning signs at Dawlish but missed the actual event.
I'm not sure I believe in the green flash - I spent 2 weeks with the Dutch Navy in ideal conditions and nobody saw it. The consensus among the Navy dudes was that it is a trick of the mind as the colour temperature changes rapidly. Certainly, all the videos of the phenomona seem heavily 'shopped.
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I have seen the green flash from a research vessel 100 miles NW of Scotland. The Master of the vessel, who saw it with me from the bridge, had been at sea for 30 years, and had never seen it before. Until we both witnessed it, he too thought it was a myth.
 
soapbox440 said:
That Baltic Sea Anomaly isn't true, is it?!
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Water masses of different salinity or density, or salt and sweet water do not mix easily. The water that flows out of a river mouth remains a clearly defined stream that can be seen when you cross it. Satellite pictures show the outflow plume of the river Maas clearly recognisable over tens of miles. As it happens, my daughter made her BSc thesis about this. They make mathematical models about the rate of mixing that go far beyond my comprehension :cool:
 
westhinder said:
Water masses of different salinity or density, or salt and sweet water do not mix easily. The water that flows out of a river mouth remains a clearly defined stream that can be seen when you cross it. Satellite pictures show the outflow plume of the river Maas clearly recognisable over tens of miles. As it happens, my daughter made her BSc thesis about this. They make mathematical models about the rate of mixing that go far beyond my comprehension :cool:
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All true, but I think soapbox is referring to ocean mystery number 6, the circular thingy at the bottom of the Baltic?
 
Jane and I have seen the Green flash many times but have only seen a Moon set once. Also had lots of bioluminescence along the hull and aft in the Caribbean on dark nights, the most spectacular was dolphins leaving a bioluminescent trail as they swam alongside and in front of the boat. Plus we have seen a line in the water where two currents collide and a waterspout in Greek waters.
 
OceanSprint said:
All true, but I think soapbox is referring to ocean mystery number 6, the circular thingy at the bottom of the Baltic?
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Yes I meant the strange circular object at the bottom of the sea!! Strange how I have never heard of this before and I cant seem to find much online. I don't believe it!
 
soapbox440 said:
Yes I meant the strange circular object at the bottom of the sea!! Strange how I have never heard of this before and I cant seem to find much online. I don't believe it!
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I found stuff about it; Wikipedia has a page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Sea_anomaly. Just from the photos I've seen, all it appears to be is a bit of weathering where there was a layer of hard rock underlain by a layer of softer rock. The rock has a strong rectlinear jointing pattern. Erosion has ( by chance) produced a nice round outline with undercut edges. Nothing at all unusual; I'd agree with the expert quoted on the page who said "Much ado about nothing!"
 
Son and I saw lights on the horizon during a night watch on our atlantic crossing - after conferring and agreeing we weren't asleep put the radar on but couldn't pick up anything - so calm there was no wave clutter - lights remained on for about 15 minutes, then vanished. Artificial lights have a quality that starlight doesn't have. Still nothing on radar and the lights were too bright for stars, well that's what we agreed. After they disappeared we scanned the horizon for the rest of our watch, but nothing obvious. Nothing on radar.

Mystified - perhaps a submarine? Certainly not a fishing boat or another yacht.......perhaps we will never know......and we hadn't had a drop of rum either.
 
>Son and I saw lights on the horizon during a night watch on our atlantic crossing - after conferring and agreeing we weren't asleep put the radar on but couldn't pick up anything - so calm there was no wave clutter - lights remained on for about 15 minutes, then vanished.

On five day passages I could never sleep so on watch I would hallucinate, one night I saw the lights of Manhattan on the horizon, were you both tired? When trying to sleep I would hear all the words of a song that I only know the chorus of, most odd.
 
Being at sea for a while coupled with lack of sleep can produce some decent hallucinations. Disneyland California just refused to go away for 30 minutes or so, halfway back from Azores. The hallucination survived my going below, retrieving the hand bearing compass and taking bearings off the fecker as well..!

Ghost ship in the red sea was most unnerving as it was seen by two people (the only two on-board) a well lit moderninsh yet dilapidated liner type ship, close enough to start thinking about colregs but nowhere to be seen on radar! WTF!!
 
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