Today’s sculpture of the day is ‘ Eddies 1′ by april wagner.
Mesoscale ocean eddies
Eddies are common in the ocean, and range in diameter from centimeters, to hundreds of kilometers. The smallest scale eddies may last for a matter of seconds, while the larger features may persist for months to years. Those eddies which are between about 10 and 500 km in diameter, and persist for periods of days to months are commonly referred to in oceanography asmesoscale eddies.
Eddies are formed, like hydraulics, on the downstream face of an obstruction. Unlike hydraulics, eddies swirl on the horizontal surface of the water. Typically, they are calm spots where the downward movement of water is partially or fully arrested – a nice place to rest or to make one’s way upstream. However, in very powerful water, eddies can have powerful, swirling currents which can flip boats and from which escape can be very difficult.