The yin and yang of the ocean, we bet you've never seen this before!

The yin and yang of the ocean, we bet you've never seen this before!

flickr (Please follow link to see the higher resolution images.)

Information on the subject:
I thought this was the most unusual thing I saw on the Alaskan cruise in the water. These two bodies of water were merging in the middle of the Alaskan gulf and there was a foam developing only at their junction.

I believe this is an example of a Halocline described on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halocline

The melting glaciers are fresh water and the ocean has a higher percentage of salt causing the two bodies of water to have different densities and therefore makes it more difficult to mix.

I just came across this random picture and Thought I would share it with you guys.

High res: (click link here, or click the link at the top.)
farm5.static.flickr.com...

Medium size



Here is the wiki explanation of this phenomenon.

In oceanography, a halocline is cline caused by a strong, vertical salinity gradient within a body of water. Because salinity (in concert with temperature) affects the density of seawater, it can play a role in its vertical stratification. Increasing salinity by one kg/m3 results in an increase of seawater density of around 0.7 kg/m3.

In the midlatitudes, an excess of evaporation over precipitation leads to surface waters being saltier than deep waters. In such regions, the vertical stratification is due to surface waters being warmer than deep waters and the halocline is destabilizing. Such regions may be prone to salt fingering, a process which results in the preferential mixing of salinity.

Wikipedia

I never knew the oceans merging with fresh water looked like this, almost looks surreal!

Nature is beautiful isn't it?

Yet more evidence of balance within nature.

I love it.

reply to post by ugie1028


That is beautiful!

I love how in the high resolution pic you can see
the curvature of the earth also!

Thank you for sharing.

Very nice the pic is simply beautifu!l Ive never seen anything like that before thank you so much for shareing

after sailing constantly for 3 years, I was never afforded such a cool phenomenon.
I did get to. witness "glass" conditions in the Indian ocean once.
thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing, It really is beautiful

i know its not the same thing but kind of is, kinda reminds me of those undersea lakes on the sea floor of higher density water

great pic btw

reply to post by ugie1028

I've seen this many times before... On a calm day down at Agalhus in South Africa, where the Indian and Atlantic ocean currents meet, it does the same thing. Really cool to see the waves crash into each other as the two currents meet..

Very nice picture

ye nice pic am sure the amazon river does this two when it meets the sea www.destination360.com...

picture of an undersea lake:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/177249543470.jpg[/atsimg]

That's amazing! It's like a big black and white cookie

Thanks heaps for showing us this, I don't think I would've ever seen It If you hadn't posted it!

Originally posted by moosevernel
picture of an undersea lake:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/177249543470.jpg[/atsimg]

how does that work?? different densities in the water??

That's a wonderful picture OP.
Also, I recognize the still frames from a documentary, it was by Nat Geo, anyone remember that?

reply to post by h1satsu


It almost looks like one body of water is on top of, or taking over the other one.
So beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Originally posted by zooplancton
after sailing constantly for 3 years, I was never afforded such a cool phenomenon.
I did get to. witness "glass" conditions in the Indian ocean once.
thanks for sharing!

what glass?

Here's another,
This is where the Rio Negro meets the Amazon.

S&F

Nice

Hmmm... You know when you get those forwarded e-mails that have some claim about a natural phenomenon or incredible event but is actually a photoshop job or flat out lie, this looks like a photoshop job. The waves on the left are totally different to the ones on the right. I guess the digital revolution makes one far more skeptical about what one sees. Are there any more visual examples of this phenomenon ?

This is a real photo.

Ive seen it before, the BBC made a documentry and they actually drove there boat over the two parts, quite amazing really.

This has nothing to do with the real meaning of yin and yang. Don't misuse words.