In 1841, Edgar Allen Poe referred to a maelstrom, or powerful whirlpool in the ocean, as a "whole sea ... lashed into ungovernable fury (http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/eapoe/bl-eapoe-descent.htm)."
Now 172 years later, a YouTube video titled "Amazing monstrous whirlpool (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqROBTVgL6A)" gives gravity to Poe's words, though (likely) on a slightly smaller scale. Set in Dviete, Latvia, near the banks of the Daugava River, the video depicts a mysterious whirlpool churning -- and destroying -- all that enters.
Huge chunks of ice? Gone. Floating islands of debris? Annihilated.
"Swallowing everything dragged towards its direction," reads the description by Jānis Astičs (https://twitter.com/janis_astics/), "this monstrous whirlpool looks as if a plug has been pulled from the ground beneath."
Astičs isn't too far off in his analysis, actually. While most whirlpools in nature occur as a result of fast moving currents (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/infobursts/whirlpools_waves_bg.shtml) meeting one another in opposite directions (often caused by ocean tides), the phenomenon in the video shares a lot in common with a draining bathtub.
Indeed, a longer version of the same video (http://youtu.be/F1cp1WtWeN0?t=8m3s) shows the mysterious "monstrous whirlpool" in Latvia has been formed by water from the swollen river flowing into an inlet on the upstream side of a bridge. All of the debris is funneled under the road on which spectators are standing and flows downstream.
According to the European Federation for Rural Tourism, Latvia's Dviete river valley (http://www.celotajs.lv/en/e/dvietessenleja), where this video was filmed, is home to a massive wetland during flooding season. The marsh serves as a critical area for birds, both for nesting and migration.
Via: HuffingtonPost