Rare 40-meter waterspout rises off Western Australia’s coast

Photographer Ben Allen and surfer Chris White recorded the phenomenon around 60 kilometers offshore in southern Western Australia.

White said he first encountered the formation about a decade ago during an ocean outing, and its unusual geometry stayed with him, prompting a return trip last year and released footage of the encounter earlier this month, ABC News reported.

 

 

Rare 40-meter waterspout rises off Western Australia’s coast

Cột nước phun bất thường giữa biển do sóng va chạm

After six hours traveling by jet ski through rough seas and rain, they spotted the plume from afar. "You just see this spout from miles away and as you get closer it gets louder and louder," White said.

Allen estimated the spray reached roughly 40 meters, matching the altitude at which he was flying his filming drone, with water splashing beyond that height.

Allen posted the video online, where it quickly drew millions of views. The footage was so unusual that many social media users believed it had been generated by artificial intelligence.

According to Professor Charitha Pattiaratchi from the Ocean Institute at The University of Western Australia, deep surrounding waters combined with the right wave conditions produced the effect. "It's basically two different swell waves coming from two different directions and then they come over the reef and crash into each other ... then the big spout going up," he explained. Similar collisions occur at many beaches, he added, but on a far smaller scale.

Wave dynamics expert Arnold Van Rooijen, also from The University of Western Australia, explained to Gizmodo that such a water column is extremely rare, describing it as a "unique combination of the geomorphology of the reefs and the symmetry of the water depths."

"I’ve shot a lot of waves, explored, looked [at waves] so many hours in my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything remotely close to that. Like, it’s just a spectacle," White said.

White and Allen have not disclosed the exact location of the site for safety reasons.