Suddenly the shorelines north of Sydney, Australia 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.
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.
'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.
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2006
Andy’s Nutcrackers
