Uzushio Science Museum was introduced in the Tokushima Shimbun on Tuesday, January 15, 2019.
Whirlpools Analysis using a model of the straits
World Heritage Site Registration Promotion Committee in Minami-Awaji City
The Council for the Promotion of the Registration of Naruto Whirlpools as a World Heritage Site in Hyogo and Tokushima has begun research using a 1:2,000 scale model of the Naruto Straits to clarify the mechanism of the whirlpools' generation.
Hideki Ueshima, a visiting professor of oceanography at Hiroshima Institute of Technology, was in charge of the survey. The model is approximately 7 m long and 8 m wide, and faithfully reproduces the topography of the Naruto Straits.
The system is designed to observe the formation of whirlpools by repeatedly generating a "south current" that flows from Harimanada to the Kii Channel through Naruto Strait and vice versa, and a "north current" that flows into the Kii Channel, by inserting wooden floats and blue dye to determine the speed and direction of the tidal currents.
Using the estimated water level of approximately 9,000 years ago, when the present Naruto Straits were formed, as a baseline, Professor Ueshima and his colleagues took force-measured photographs of the tidal currents and other phenomena by changing the narrowness of the straits in stages. By collecting and analyzing the data, they will investigate how the form and scale of the whirlpools have changed in the past and how the cauldron-shaped hollows on both sides of the straits, known as "kaifuku," were formed.
The aim is to clarify the geomorphological and geological characteristics of Naruto's whirlpools, and to help register them as a World Heritage site. The survey will be conducted from the 11th to the 18th, and part of the results will be reported at an international symposium to be held in Minami-Awaji City in March.
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