Oceans Turn To Foam, Froth Near Sydney, Australia

[Richard]

Cappuccino Coast: The day the Pacific was whipped up into an ocean of froth

By RICHARD SHEARS

It was as if someone had poured tons of coffee and milk into the ocean, then switched on a giant blender.

Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney were transformed into the Cappuccino Coast.
Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards' centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales.
One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.


Boy in the bubble bath: Tom Woods, 12, emerges from the clouds of foam after deciding that surfing was not an option

It stretched for 30 miles out into the Pacific in a phenomenon not seen at the beach for more than three decades.
Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed.
All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles.
These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore.
As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam.
The foam "surfs" towards shore until the wave "crashes", tossing the foam into the air.


Whitewash: The foam was so thick it came all the way up to the surf club

"It's the same effect you get when you whip up a milk shake in a blender," explains a marine expert.
"The more powerful the swirl, the more foam you create on the surface and the lighter it becomes."
In this case, storms off the New South Wales Coast and further north off Queensland had created a huge disturbance in the ocean, hitting a stretch of water where there was a particularly high amount of the substances which form into bubbles.
As for 12-year-old beachgoer Tom Woods, who has been surfing since he was two, riding a wave was out of the question.
"Me and my mates just spent the afternoon leaping about in that stuff," he said.
"It was quite cool to touch and it was really weird. It was like clouds of air - you could hardly feel it."



Children play among all the foam which was been whipped up by cyclonic conditions

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=478041&in_page_id=1811

[Astrojewels]

I did see this article and true that the currents around this particular area are incredibly strong but there is more to it, I am sure. However it is an amazing site.

[Get Boldened]

Australia is a very exotic and mysterious place. UFOs stealing water, hybrids, and now this.

[DreamTime]

I'm going to have to send this article to my daughter who will be coming over to Australia in January. She should have such a good time - she probably won't want to leave after 4 months. Wish I was going with her.

[Sily]

Wow.  I have seen foam on the beaches at Ocean City, MD after a nor'easter, but never like this.  What a great picture. 

[Astrojewels]

Australia is a mystery and always will be, we have everything here, great beaches, great weather, great forests, and I am sure being labeled the largest island has something to do with it, because the energy is reflective of being on a holiday.
GB, there are hybrids all over the world, people have been discussing it for years, it is not isolated to the land of down unda.