In his Marine Charter , printed in 1539, the Swedish ecclesiastic Olaus Magnus includes a whirlpool off the coast of northern Europe that supposedly engulfed the vessels it caught. Some ancient Norse myths cite this phenomenon, which is mentioned in various medieval poetic compositions. The legend, however, could refer to tidal currents located between the Corryvreckan Gulf, in Scotland, and the Lofoten Islands, in Norway . Precisely near them, in the Moskstraumen Strait, is the most famous, described by the writer Edgar Allan Poe in his work A Descent into the Maelstrom .
In general, these structures are formed when strong currents converge, and their effects are more noticeable if this occurs in estuaries and channels. The largest, called Saltstraumen, can be seen near the Norwegian city of Bodø: 400 million cubic meters of water pass at almost 40 km / h through a 150-meter channel every 6 hours , creating spirals of 10 meters in diameter. and 5 deep.
