This is definitely one of the strangest natural phenomenon I’ve ever read about.
Just imagine dumping enough dish-washing liquid into the ocean to turn all the waves into light and fluffy soap bubbles that are soft enough to blow out of your hand into the air…
Well, that’s basically what happened off the coast of Yamba in New South Wales!
Here we see kids frolicking and playing in the wonderful ocean foam, oblivious to the fact that it is comprised of dead plants, decomposed fish, and seaweed excretions!
From the Daily Mail:
Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards’ centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales.
One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.
It stretched for 30 miles out into the Pacific in a phenomenon not seen at the beach for more than three decades.
Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles. These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore.
As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam. The foam “surfs” towards shore until the wave “crashes”, tossing the foam into the air.
“It’s the same effect you get when you whip up a milk shake in a blender,” explains a marine expert. “The more powerful the swirl, the more foam you create on the surface and the lighter it becomes.”
In this case, storms off the New South Wales Coast and further north off Queensland had created a huge disturbance in the ocean, hitting a stretch of water where there was a particularly high amount of the substances which form into bubbles.
It’s just too bad no one captured any video of the event (that I can find at least). I would have loved to have seen it live.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
this is by far the strangest story I have read in months, I wonder if those same scientifics were not aware something like this would happen, but it is kind of cool for the kids :-)
Actually there Is a video existing somewhere. Not of this, but I can remember that I saw something on TV 2 or 3 years ago and it was a documentation. The Wind blew the foam also miles into the countryside
As I was in the Philippines already at that time the sources are limited to NatGoe, DiscoveryChannel or CNN BBC…
I also remember that they said it is a desaster for the UnderWater-Life
cheers
Rhoody
I wonder what it smells like, “salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed”… As daring as I am, this is one poisonous mess I would stay away from!
Very cool and awesome :D, im serious…
That sounds like something people would pay hundreds of dollars for at a spa. Maybe they could serve that cat poop coffee with your dead plants, decomposed fish, and seaweed excretions aromatic wrap. :D
That sounds a little bit disgusting! I would feel (similar to Johny) that it would be rather unsafe. But on the other, it would still be highly likely that I would venture in if it seemed to me to be even remotely possible (AKA I would not positively get a disease from going in). That would DEFINITELY be a once in a lifetime opportunity!
That is weird and amazing and I highly doubt that I could resist the temptation to play in it! A video would be great to see, for sure! I’ll try to remember to look for one.
Next time, don’t put so much soap in the washer, ok, John?! :P
Yamba isn’t close to Sydney in anyone’s reckoning. It’s at least 700km (550 miles) north of it. I wouldn’t want to walk to it from Sydney. This event happened in August some time and made the news around here. (I live about 90 minutes away from Yamba).
Interesting phenomenon.
Now knowing what the foam is composed of, I’m so disgusted! Hope those kids didn’t swallow any of that stuff!
Greetings from Sydney, Australia.
The South Korean citizen reporters’ journal OhmyNewsInternational has just published a story I’ve written, showing a link to your website. It’s posted at http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=381567&rel_no=1&back_url=
You are welcome to copy it if you wish.
Cheers, Eric.
That’s very strange to me.. I wonder what it smells like..It’s really dirty I think, all those things like death fish,isn’t it dangerous for a human? with chemicals and stuff like that, it isn’t really healthy. (Lisa from Belgium)