The world's most powerful tidal current
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- čas přidán 21. 05. 2017
- Near Bodø in Norway, there's the strongest tidal current in the world: Saltstraumen Maelstrom, a constantly-changing rush of whirlpools, boils and vortices. It might not be quite the whirlpools of myth and legend, but it's still an impressive sight to see.
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And for everyone who's been waiting: Citation Needed returns Thursday!
Woo!
YESSSS
yee
Tom Scott Amazing Places: The Maginot Line.
The best four words anyone could ever say!
Bread goes in, toast comes out.
Can't explain that.
Romanski God dunnit
Checkmate, atheists.
Romanski Yeah but when Toast goes in, some guy named Chris and a lot of denial come out.
Food goes in poop comes out, you can't explain that!
Chickens go in, pies come out.
Can always count on Tom to give us the most current content.
He should've done a live "stream" there.
I don't understand. Water you two talking about?
I sea you're up to no good again.
I'm gonna turn your tide.
Also, this seems a bit "fish"-y.
no matter what you binge on CZcams, you'll always end up in Tom Scott videos
Currently living this reality
It's just what happened to me today. Are you an oracle? How come you know it?😧
@@Kenan-Z i am inside your CPU
Me as well!!!!!!! Are we trapped?
Tom, the Scookumchuck narrows here in BC on the west coast of Canada is similar. We see 760m cubic meters flow with a 3m tide change. Amazing to see. They practice surfing and kayaking on a 2m waterfall caused by it during extreme tide changes of 5m. Love your channel, thanks
I knew there'd be another coaster in here.
It would be interesting to know what the maximum flows actually are. The Wikipedia entry for Saltstraumen Maelstrom says the official numbers, from the Norwegian Pilot, are less than 10 kts, which is a lot less than Skookumchuck and other places on the BC coast where currents often run into the teens.
Why does this guy look old and young at the same time?
Wisdom, perhaps?
its the effect of premature balding when it starts in your 20s.
You can end up with a baby face alongside the hairline of a 40-50 year old, creating a maelstorm of mismatched old/young features.
Alcohol abuse
@NESHMETAL r/13or30
Very steve martin
The tides have turned.
stop
They do that twice a day. Your point?
HOW QUICKLY THE TIDE TURNS
sounds epic right
Well well well How the turn tides
"Most of us don't think much"
Could have just stopped there really.
As someone who lives near and visits the bay very often (Long Island, NY which is usually known for strong currents) I can't even fathom the speed of that current visually alone. Makes my bay seem stagnant in comparison. It's almost surreal. I had to rewind to hear what Tom was even saying because I was stunned at the immensely powerful speed of the flow was. Really neat stuff.
Fun fact: Scuba divers often take a dip when the current is at its strongest outwards (towards the ocean), to be flung underwater at high speeds just for shits and giggles. They then end up hundreds of meters out in the ocean and get picked up either by boat or helicopter ^_^
is it possible to swim against the current...?
or just swim towards the shore when you are flung hundreds of meters since its weaker there?
Or Shark
chickentandoori87 - what about sharks that get caught in the current and then get tossed straight at you???
Fun fact: no one enters this part of the fjord, its restricted.
Sounds fun
This is one of the greatest channels on CZcams! Thanks for all you do!
Pun intended
If you like this guy you will probably like veritasium as well
@@codyfisher9972Goated creators. Mark Rober is awesome too, different stuff though
How to prove tides are an illusion
Scientists incorrectly believe that tides are caused by the moon's gravitational pull on seawater, causing it to bulge and move around the Earth.
The truth is that tides are an illusion of shorelines moving through the ocean, caused by periodic solar orbiting rays that cause thermal expansion of the Earth's crust.
To prove that tides are an illusion, a laser beam was set up on a pier at the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy, parallel to sea level and pointing westward to a fixed land mark away from the shore. This target was observed at high and low tide. If the tide is a change in sea level, then the target matches. Otherwise, the tide is an illusion of the coastal seabed moving across the flat ocean due to periodic thermal expansion of the earth's crust.
How does Tom come up with all these fascinating phenomena? Well done Tom. Tremendous amount of research
i know this isnt at all what you meant, but the idea that tom personally creates everything he shows us and is a god funny
If you weren’t aware. Tom is just a spokesperson.(he is very intelligent) But he’s just invited to these phenomena to present it to his audience.
Wow, over 4 years later and this is still current
Pun intended?
*Me:* "Wow that's deadly"
*Brain:* "Swim"
*Me:* "What?"
*Brain:* "You gotta"
Good luck
dont
Do it
yes do it
Dew it Anakin. Mwehehe.
Great to se home in a Tom Scott video.
Saltstrømmen is an incredible place everyone should visit if they are in Norway 🇳🇴
Been there, it was fascinating to see. I'd love you to do a comparison with the horizontal waterfall in NW Australia.
Yep, doesn't seem to compare with Horizontal Falls in Western Australia
Some of Slartibartfast's best work!
It's insane how similar this looks to tsunami footage from for example the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Makes you appreciate why the term 'tidal wave' is so often used for tsunamis.
This didn't age well.
Your videos about the Bolton Strid and now this are honestly mindblowing
Found Tom last night & I’ve literally been binge watching all his videos! What an educational & awesome channel!
Fun fact: "Saltstraumen" means "The salt current"
No, "Salt-" comes from Norse "salpt" meaning current.
Arathos no it really means «the salt current»
@@CobraTeamGuys Can you back that claim up?
I sense some salt in this comment thread....
@@gnuling296 Nobody knows for sure since the name is so old but salt does mean current in old Norse and it's a part of the name of several other Norwegian tidal currents too, such as as the twin Nordsalten (North current) and Sørsalten (South current)
What if you were to put some sort of generator there? Or is that inefficient?
Would be pretty ok, but there are a lot of rivers where the amount of water is way higher. And you would also have to deal with the tide switching directions every 6 hours
No, just use waterfalls instead with high fall distances, there are plenty of those in norway anyways
As Jonathanje said, it would be ok but I'd like to add that the mealstrom also creates very turbulent water that could rip it apart if it's not built sturdy enough.
+CrazyGaming You can do it, there's a experimental power plant in New York producing power from the stream of the river there with underwater turbines, nothing stopping us from doing the same here.
The issue is just that that there's a *lot* of wear and tear on something like that...
+slawterer And then all the blended fish matter (which mostly consists of ground up bones and meat) would clog up the generator, requiring it to be taken offline and cleaned, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone willing to clean up that bloody mess.
Tom, I just want to thank you for including captions for all your videos. We so appreciate it!
I grew up next to a total river that has significant currents running both ways. The Piscataqua River has freshwater flowing into it, but the water is dominated by the ocean pouring in and out with the tides. Navigating the currents can be tricky, especially when docking, but it had never been labeled a maelstrom. Saltwater fish and invertebrates dominate, and you can catch lobsters miles inland. I haven't been to my hometown in seventeen years and I miss the river. If you are in coastal New Hampshire or southern Maine, check it out.
"This never happens" flashing on the screen!
Subtle, love the Hitchiker's Guide references in this one :)
and the lovely crinkly edges :)
I just realised that Tom may have based his whole youtube persona on the Book.
@@ThreadBomb Nah, I think that's just every Brit
As ever Tom, brilliant. Keep up the great content but don't burn out, looking after yourself is the number one priority.
He needs to get a girlfriend before the stress turns him into Steve Carell or worse, or maybe Herbert Hoover if he has an anonymous LiveLeak account.
He might do already, he doesn't like to talk too much about his personal life. I'd consider it but I'm a lesbian so...
LeahAmelia1 whoa
Just let him be. Leave Tom alone! 😂
You are such a pleasure to listen to, Tom.
For those of us in the New World, the Bay of Fundy has an amazing tidal bore - including at least one big whirlpool (been out in a boat - that felt way too small - to look at it).
you might want to take a look at the Corryvreckan whirlpool between Jura and Scarba in Scotland. Bit of a trek to get to, but when it's running it's amazing. You can hear the roar for quite a distance. Thereare standing waves and more. It was once described unnavigable, although modern boats and ships can handle it now.
Horizontal falls in Western Australia's Kimberly has 11meter tides (33ft) that pass through a narrow passage
The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia also experiences super high tides.
In fact, people surf the tidal wave with the incoming tides cause it does come in that fast.
And another: Deception Pass, Whidby Island, Washington State.
Skookumchuck narrows near Egmont BC Canada draws river kayakers to shoot it's rapids during peak tide season.
@@Saugaverse if you surf the the horizontal falls in the Kimberley in Australia and you fell off you get eaten bye sharks and crocs
Talbot bay WA.10m tides passing through a 20m wide gap then through a 10m wide gap further in, creating a horizontal water fall that is spectacular. Tom,you ain't seen nothing till you've seen that,makes that maelstrom look like a trickle.
Been there, loved it. Very powerful. Great coverage.
Into The Maelstrom is such a great story. Thanks for clarifying the situation.
The Severn Bore on the spring tide is something to behold. An entire river slows, then proceeds to go backwards at such a velocity that surfers can ride the crest of the wave upstream.
Yes but the scale and speed is tiny compared to this although you get the wawe up river and here we dont.
Hey Tom! I love your videos, always amazing! I also find it so cool that you find ways to impart profound messages into videos like this, I think that's part of what separates you from typical science and explanation CZcams channels!
Excellent presentation all around!
Thank you so much,Tom! Wonderful video👍
0:02 Bill O'Reilly confirmed
You can't explain that.
Never a miscommunication.
All hail Harry Potter, the holy deity of all that is true. If it weren't for his wizardly spells of water movement, there would be no tide.
What?
Sidney W, some years ago on the O'Reilley Factor, an atheist was interviewed by O'Reilley, who gave the stunning argument for a (/his) gods' existence: The tides. Himself unaware of why the tides "never miscommunicat[ed]", he claimed that "you [atheists] can't explain that" *. Of course, that's pure bollocks, as we can explain it and have been able to for centuries, but O'Reilley seeing it was the perfect argument for his god of a gap, seized upon it.
Naturally it became a meme within a few days, and has since survived for when we already know all necessary information to explain a phenomenon, yet uneducated fraudsters still try to claim we know nothing so as to make room for their god.
*IIRC, the atheist was so dumbstruck that he couldn't answer straight away, which made O'Reilley repeat the claim several times. It was good fun; look it up.
I love your channel Tom, it's always about such interesting and new things to me! Thanks for showing us parts of the world we'd NEVER get to see otherwise!! Keep it up! ^_^
Thanks for getting straight to the point! :)
South Puget Sound has a tidal swing of 12-13 (sometimes up to 19) feet in an area of 1,020 sq. miles. All of that water has to go in and out at the Tacoma Narrows between Gig Harbor and Tacoma. That water is in a constant boil.
0:26 "Lovely crinkly edges."
Yes, they give a country a lovely Baroque feel, don't they?
Would this be a good place to dump a body? Just asking for a friend. 🤔
Yes and no. I live in the area, and have heard a million stories about people falling into the sea and disappearing, never to be found again. Believe it or not though, it's an extremely popular diving spot, where divers can go down underwater at the weakest point of the day. These divers sometimes find rests of bodies at the sea bottom (but they're mostly from suicides, as the huge-ass Saltstraumen bridge above Tom in the video is a 'popular' suicide spot as well).
Steve Trump [VR] this fjord is restricted from all divers so no, bodies don’t get found
@@Alucard-gt1zf completely wrong. I literally work at the local campsite, which works together with the diving center "Saltstraumen Dykkecamp". Search it up if you don't believe me. It's a thing, it's legal, and it happens.
Or "Saltstraumen Diving Camp", I guess in English.
If you're looking to dump a body, the best place to do so is out in the Everglades in any remote gator infested mud hole that has a depth of more than twenty feet. But you will need a trusted friend with a helicopter, because you have to drop the body with some velocity for it to punch through the mud and get sucked to the bottom. It's gotta be that deep black mud too, and without deep standing water on top. Gots to have that quick sand surface layer otherwise standing water could prevent proper submersion and give ya a floater. Or so I was told by a friend, who I had asked for a friend of a friend.
Thanks Tom. Great Job
Amazing how beautifully clear the water is!
Tide goes in tide goes out. You can't explain that.
😂😂😂
Thanks Donald
Explains Jesus according to Bill O'Reilly 🙄🙄🙄
I'd love to see a time lapse video of the tide changing here. Watching the water flow in and back out in minutes.
So much passion and excitement for something kind of drab.
This was an amazing practical demonstration of gravitational (tidal) force. 💜
The interesting thing about Tom's videos is the fact that you don't realize how interesting the subject is before you've heard about it.
Loved the peter jones HHGTTG, "This never happens" homage!!
Loved the "This Never Happens" Hitchhikers Guide BBC series reference, Excellent catch Tom!
That phrase is in the book too
Love the summary. I often think about this on a global scale. It's terrifying
Loved the "this never happens" reference!
My favourite hitchhikers quote is:
(when discussing hyperspace travel)
"its like being drunk"
"that doesn't sound too bad"
"tell that to a pint of lager"
I think it was "a glass of water".
I'll never be cruel to a gin & tonic again...
This must be Thursday. I never could quite get the hang of Thursdays.
Wow! I'd love to see a 24 hour time lapse of this.
Heard about the Norwegian Malestrom in the book ‘20,000 Leagues Under The Sea’. Finally understand.
This reminds me of Deception Pass in Washington State. It's one of my favorite places in the Pacific Northwest.
This reminds me a lot of the tides and currents where I'm from, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. We're on the coast of the Bay Of Fundy which holds the record for the highest tides in the world, 15 metres between low tide and high tide. We're also famous for the Reversing Falls where water from the river and water from the bay meet and flow into each other causing rapids, whirlpools and a look that resembles falls going in reverse, hence the name Reversing Falls. If you're ever in Canada, specifically the East Coast it is definitly worth checking out.
I was thinking of the whirlpool in Saint John watching this, even has the bridge above it.
I have seen something quite like this in other parts of Northern Norway. It is really a wild thing to watch. And kinda scary too. Maybe some day I'll visit this particular spot.
my grandfather took me and my brother in the saltstraumen with a boat to fish when we was kids! incredible experience :D my grandfather was a fisherman he's entire life. RIP Grandpa.
Im here right now. Drinking with Polish workers i just met 1h ago and having a great time. Thank you Tom❤
Tom, visit the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton, Virginia. There's an underground tunnel that leads TO WASHINGTON D.C.!!!
Catpirate what
Wyatt Fenlason It's true
The fourth longest water tunnel are in Skåne, Sweden. Give fresh water to Malmö region.
He's right. It is true. I'm not far from there at all. Maybe 2 hours
Is anyone liable to travel through the tunnel?
You should go to Horizontal Falls in the Kimberley, Western Australia. Also up Cape Leveque there is some strong currents.
Yep. 5m tide through a 12m inlet.
@@mabamabam How about the bay of Fundy in Canada, it has a nearly 20 meter tidal difference, and there's actually a place where the water rushes past an island in the middle of the inlet with such ferocity that it makes the entire island vibrate. Even without that island it already has the biggest tidal difference in the world, but that island increases it even more and so drastically that the water level drops up to 2 meter in height difference in less than a few dozen meters of distance.
Ty just the info i needed without 2 hours of bs.
I'm so glad that I stumbled on this channel.
Love the HHGttG references, especially to the old BBC sites
"Tide goes in, tide goes out. We can quite accurately explain that"
-Albert Hawking (2020)
What about our year?!
Amazing it took 5 year to go from this video to the Bay of Fundy in Canada video but I'm glad we have it now
There are similar rapids like this near (somewhat) where I live in BC called Nakwakto. It's also been called the fastest. It looks much faster but that may be because there is a small islet in the middle of it. So there can be a huge water level difference from the currentward vs leeward sides. Yes I have been on it in a small boat and it is horrifying
What about Skookumchuck Narrows, near Sechelt, BC, Canada?
Tom Scott for Prime Minister!
drcadillac pink floyd.
Mad Cap'n Tom for Prime Minister!
Look at Tom, staying current!!!
i grew up in a midwestern small wisconsin town where we dont get "tides"
the idea that there are places on earth where the water level changes naturally every day has always amazed me
Can't explain that.
Get back to making poops
Gah
Come on, or else JoeySnowey will beat you again.
Seems like a great place for a hydro power dam
Fascinating. Thank you.
Bless you for the H2G2 references. I caught the second one and it pleased me.
"Salt-straumen" = "Salt Stream", whereby "Salten" is here (confusingly) the area, not the water.
And what is "Maelstorm"?
You should do a video about the Öresund bridge while you're in Scandinavia.
I love Whirlpools and Maelstroms
Thank you Tom! I never knew about this!
Watching this in real life was pretty dope...! Great fishing spot as well
I *love* these videos!
It's always made me curious though, how do you fund these awesome trips?
You can see the water spin as it flows by. This is awesome
you can also see similar at Connel bridge near Oban Scotland when the tide changes.
It would actually be called the Saltstraum Maelstrom, because the "en" at the end of the word would mean the same as the english word "the" before the word.
Source: am norwegian
@@tardigrade9493 rip
Saltstraumen is the name of the locality and so the Saltstraumen Maelstrom is the correct name for the tidal current. It is, after all, the 'maelstrom at Saltstraumen'.
Is it weird that I want to try and swim in it, just to see how strong it is.
That depends. If you welcome death, then no, it's not weird at all.
You would join a long list of people who have met cold, wet, swift deaths in the same spot. The water will be so cold that it'll send your muscles and respiratory system into shock, making it exceptionally hard to swim or even just tread water, but on top of that it's extremely turbulent... you'd be dragged under within seconds, and not even have the strength to try and claw your way back to the surface, assuming you could still tell which way was up.
So, yeah... it's maybe not weird, but it is extremely ill-advised.
Call of the void
Also have a look at the Falls of Lora in Scotland, The tidal current is huge & develops amazing standing waves that people surf on
Swam across it last week when it was in full flow, amazing experience, a once in a lifetime experience.
this is the one water current that always kills you in Hungry Shark Evolution
"Most of us don't think much..."
You should've just ended the video there Tom.
SSome of the swirls and patterns in the water remind me of the storm belts on Jupiter. A great Video.
I live in Norway! A youtuber as big as you talking bout my small country made me happy
Not bad, but check out the Horizontal's at Talbot Bay in the Kimberley's, Western Australia, now that is amazing.
I think faster as well, plus the drop in water levels either side
Talbot Bay Western Australia: *FIGHT ME*
Great video. Well done.
Interesting as always thank you!
"Tide goes in, Tide goes out"
*Splatoon music starts*
It reminds me of the Simpsons where homer's like bed goes up bed goes down😀
Imagine how much hydroelectric power that could generate.
Beautifully and enthusiastically explained…..
Good work Tommy