Scientists from the University of Liverpool have managed to track the so-called "smoke-rings," a special type of oceanic eddies which are even capable of carrying away marine animals.
According to a study published by Geophysical Research Letters, the "smoke rings" are a pair of linked eddies that spin in opposite directions. Their speed is about ten times the speed of "normal" oceanic eddies and it's still unclear how they emerge.
Using satellite data on sea level and surface water temperature, the researchers spotted a spate of the "smoke rings" in the Tasman Sea off the coast of Australia and in the South Atlantic west of South Asia.
The first 'smoke rings' in the ocean have been spotted. Find out more in NOC news round-up https://t.co/f8XnZWUDJ1 #marinescience pic.twitter.com/rDGFUa68lc
— Oceanography Centre (@NOCnews) 8 декабря 2017 г.
Professor Chris Hughes, lead author of the study and an expert in sea level science, said that the smoke rings are "linked to each other so that they travel together all the way across the Tasman Sea, taking six months to do it."
"My thinking is that these linked, fast moving eddies could 'suck-up' small marine creatures and carry them at high speed and for long distances across the ocean," he pointed out.
