A23a in "iceberg alley"

[bitsostring]

A23a: Tracking the world’s biggest iceberg in Antarctica - BBC News

[bitsostring]

Update: A23a: Colossal iceberg stuck spinning in ocean trap - BBC News

I wonder if the whirlpool in Corryvreckan is a Taylor column. . . it seems to be caused by a rock formation that rises from 70 m to 28 m below the surface.

[administrator]

I’m no expert but a bit of reading suggests that a Taylor column relates to the flow of fluid around a movable object, e.g. the iceberg.

Corryvreckan doesn’t have an object, other than occasional boats in the whirlpool, so it’s missing a key part of the Taylor column environment.

[bitsostring]

Article says:

Prof Taylor showed how a current that meets an obstruction on the seafloor can - under the right circumstances - separate into two distinct flows, generating a full-depth mass of rotating water between them.

In this instance, the obstruction is a 100km-wide bump on the ocean bottom known as Pirie Bank. The vortex sits on top of the bank, and for now A23a is its prisoner.