A picture has been going viral on Facebook claiming that it is an amazing natural phenomenon where ‘two oceans meet but do not mix.’
The picture states that the phenomenon occurs near the Gulf of Alaska.
In the image, two water bodies, one eccentric blue and another deep blue can be seen meeting at a point. However, the line where they meet is pretty evident.
Fact Check
When you look for the place on Google, the misconception about the picture becomes quite clear.
According to Ken Bruland, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California-Santa Cruz, this phenomenon occurs when sediment-laden water from glacial rivers empties out into the ocean. Reportedly, this picture was taken by him in 2007 while he was on a cruise for research studies.
“Glacier rivers in the summertime are like buzzsaws eroding away the mountains there,” Bruland said. “In the process, they lift up all this material — they call it glacial flour — that can be carried out.”
These glacial rivers are picked up by ocean currents moving east to west, and begin to circulate there. This is one of the primary methods that iron, found in the clay and sediment of the glacial runoff, is transported to iron-deprived regions in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska.
Also, according to Bruland, the ‘line’ will ultimately fade once the iron-rich glacial rivers mix into the ocean water.
“They do eventually mix, but you do come across these really strong gradients at these specific moments in time,” he said.
Our research concludes that though the picture is real, the two claims are false. First, only one of the water bodies is an ocean. The other is a glacial river.
Second, the two water bodies eventually do merge.
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