foamy Seas

Mark · Tue Nov 13, 07 10:29 am **foamy Seas**

Weird

WHIPPED OCEAN ...SOMETHING WE'LL NEVER SEE... I HOPE! AMAZING
>
> Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney was transformed into the Cappuccino
> Coast. 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.
> Boy in the bubble bath: Tom Woods, 12, emerges from the clouds of foam
> after deciding that surfing was not an option.
> 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, deadplants,
> 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.
> Whitewash: The foam was so thick it came all the way up to the surf club
> '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. As for 12-year-old beachgoer Tom Woods, who has been surfing
> since he was two, riding a wave was out of the question. 'Me and my mates
> just spent the afternoon leaping about in that stuff,' he said.
> 'It was quite cool to touch and it was really weird. It was like clouds of
> air - you could hardly feel it.'
> Children play among the foam which was whipped up by cyclonic conditions.