'Evil water' linked to mysterious drownings

newscientist.com ^ | 17 December 2008 | Matt Kaplan

[Joiseydude]

It may sound like a superstitious excuse for a poor day's swimming, but it is not uncommon for triathletes to complain that the water is behaving badly - even that it is "evil". Now a study suggests what they are feeling is real.

Leo Maas, a fluid dynamicist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and colleagues found that "dead water" - an obstructive effect encountered by ships at sea - can strike swimmers too.

As ships sail over a layer of warm water sitting over saltier, or colder, layers, waves form in the boundary between the two layers. As these waves grow, they form a gulf beneath the ship, sucking away its speed. This effect can stall boats at sea, reducing their speed by up to 80%.

[Arrowhead1952]

As ships sail over a layer of warm water sitting over saltier, or colder, layers, waves form in the boundary between the two layers. As these waves grow, they form a gulf beneath the ship, sucking away its speed.

No. No. No. That is just Rove's weather machine warming up for the 2009 hurricane season.

[TalonDJ]

An accomplished swimmer (the sort that swims in triathlons) should be capable of staying afloat indefinitely . . . despite their low(er) body fat.

That is why it is rare. And like you said, in a way it is 'pilot error' to get that tired. But even so,if you are DEAD tired and a mile from shore, by yourself, you drown. the problem would be a swimmer that KNOWS they can swim the distance because they do it all the time. So they ignore the warning signs. High end athletes sometimes do that when they are really pushing themselves. By way of disclaimer I am a triathlete and an engineer that knows a thing or two about fluid dynamics.

Plenty of triathletes drown. If they do it while training and swimming alone there is not way to be sure what caused it. Can be as simple as a cramp.

[TalonDJ]

triathletes do not regularly drown otherwise.

yes but there HAVE been instances where really strong swimmers drowned on a calm day. Just because they don't cite them don't mean there aren't any. It is rare in part because people dumb enough to swim miles, alone, are also rare. The question was not how many deaths this might cause but it the effect can even happen with a swimmer or not. They demonstrated it can. I am not sure what you are trying to argue with.

[1rudeboy]

. . . the problem would be a swimmer that KNOWS they can swim the distance because they do it all the time. So they ignore the warning signs. High end athletes sometimes do that when they are really pushing themselves.

Again, I am not disputing that it might occur. I simply have a problem with the term "linked to mysterious drownings." There are so many confounding factors that testing the hypothesis is impossible.

[wtc911]

Evil water....

I surfed a lot in the Dominican Republic in the 80s. There were a few locals but nobody else was surfing there in those days. Very lonesome but very cool.

One day I was in the water at Rio San Juan with a friend who had married a Dominican girl and knew the breaks. It was a good day, overhead but not intimidating, just the two of us in the water and nobody on the beach. There was some sun but mostly it was overcast.

We were paddling out after a set, the reef was about 75 yards out. Very suddenly the water seemed to turn black and slick. we kept paddling but we weren't getting anywhere. There was something very scary going on, it felt as though a malevolent energy was passing just under the surface.

I looked over at Charlie, the look on his face told me that he was as scared as I was. Without a word we turned around and beat it into the beach. We sat there watching and trying to figure out what the hell was out there.

I never figured out what it was but I undertand now how our ancestors believed in spirits and monsters in the ocean.

[GOPJ]

Bell curves and such - maybe there’s a condition of “more” power. And could it be harnessed?

[GOPJ]

We were paddling out after a set, the reef was about 75 yards out. Very suddenly the water seemed to turn black and slick. we kept paddling but we weren't getting anywhere.

There was something very scary going on, it felt as though a malevolent energy was passing just under the surface.

Had you been through that area before? Did you go back through that area later with a different result? "The water seems to turn black..." - Was it just your perception of the water than changed or did everything seem a little darker?

[wtc911]

We did go back out but only for a little while. I started surfing in 1965 and I've surfed throughout the Caribbean, in Hawaii and up and down both coasts. I still get in the water a dozen or so times a year.

I have never seen or felt anything like that day anywhere else.

In the twenty or so years since then the beach has become a global destination for wind surfers but I've not surfed there again.

[Smokin' Joe]

It sounds like a standing wave on the interface. In effect, running into a strong current that ordinarily would not be felt, but the distortion of the boundary brings close enough to the surface to be a problem.

Any 'silent service' folks out there run into this?

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

water directly linked to drownings, huh.

Where is the graphic of Captain Obvious?

[IrishPennant]

This one works better here:

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Thanks. I’m sure it looks groovy and all but my firewall stripped it.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

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[djf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5apEctKwiD8

[Condor51]

**** I can’t see this affecting drownings unless it affects buoyancy somehow. ****

There was a program a while back on the National Geo Channel about 'Killer Lakes' in Africa.

The scientist found that massive amounts of CO2 were being fed in to the lakes. It was kept at the bottom by the weight of the 'normal lake water' above until the CO2 reached such a volume it over came the water weight and literally exploded. The CO2 gas cloud then traveled with the wind and suffocated anyone in its path.

An experiment was then done in a lab about these massive amounts of CO2 rising to the surface and they found it also affects buoyancy that boats will sink (and so would a swimmer). They then hypothesized that this CO2 anomaly could explain boat/ship disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. [CO2 bubbles rising from the sea floor have been found in the Bermuda Triangle]

[1rudeboy]

Again, I get it . . . it’s just that we haven’t seen any headlines that read, “Sea opens up and swallows 20 triathletes.”

[Salamander]

That....was....a...SCARY....story!

{{{{shudder}}}}

Utter Landlubber ‘Mander

[Squidpup]

"Whoever put me in the water is going to be dead"

[Locomotive Breath]

People caught in a rip current exhaust themselves trying to get back to shore. Then they drown. This happens, unfortunately, all the time. Anything that causes a swimmer to make way too much effort to get to a destination would have the same effect. You can claim that their drowning is their own fault but it’s very easy to put yourself in the situation of swimming as hard as you can and getting nowhere and not realizing it until it’s too late.