Uploaded February 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Whirlpools are caused by underwater currents being forced to rotate, usually by some under-water obstacle. Essentially if you were to fall into a whirlpool, you will be pulled down to the bottom and then carried away by the current (you will probably drown).
If you fall into the water you're basically screwed, though depending upon the strength of the whirlpool you may be able to swim to escape. The best chance of escape is by swimming in the direction of the rotation, but angled slightly outward - this ensures that the whirlpool is giving you all the possible speed it can and hopefully you can swim fast enough to get out.
If you're in a boat, however, you have much better odds. You can use the same principle, but crank the throttle. If this is unsuccessful you can drop your anchor (I know it's counter intuitive but it is proven physics that heavy objects will be thrown from the vortex simply because of how much momentum it can carry).
Source(s):
I saw a thing on the Discovery channel a couple months ago on whirlpools - sorry I don't remember what it was called :P
Whirlpools are caused by underwater currents being forced to rotate, usually by some under-water obstacle. Essentially if you were to fall into a whirlpool, you will be pulled down to the bottom and then carried away by the current (you will probably drown).
If you fall into the water you're basically screwed, though depending upon the strength of the whirlpool you may be able to swim to escape. The best chance of escape is by swimming in the direction of the rotation, but angled slightly outward - this ensures that the whirlpool is giving you all the possible speed it can and hopefully you can swim fast enough to get out.
If you're in a boat, however, you have much better odds. You can use the same principle, but crank the throttle. If this is unsuccessful you can drop your anchor (I know it's counter intuitive but it is proven physics that heavy objects will be thrown from the vortex simply because of how much momentum it can carry).
Source(s):
I saw a thing on the Discovery channel a couple months ago on whirlpools - sorry I don't remember what it was called :P
