This Strange Phenomenon In Alaska Drove The Internet Crazy

Photographer Kent Smith took a photo on a cruise ship and had no idea it would drive the internet crazy. He simply thought the photo was the most unusual thing he’d seem on the Alaskan cruise. The photo was of two bodies of water merging in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska and there was foam developing only at their junction. That was July 2010 and since Kent posted the image, it has received well over one million views and is an iconic internet image that “went viral.”

The best explanation seems to be that the water closer to the shore was composed of melted glacial waters that were fresh water and laden with glacial silt. The ocean water appears darker and was saltier. They do eventually mix over time, but this shot was captured at the moment when a rush of fresh meltwater was meeting the ocean water. This mysterious phenomenon has kept the internet fascinated for years.

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Merging Oceans Official Facebook

There was another viral surge in September that year and the numbers just kept growing. On February 5, 2013, the Alaska Dispatch news wrote an article about the viral photo and the views continued to rise. After the photo reached 1 million views, he created a Facebook page just for the photo called "Merging Oceans."

Read the Alaska Dispatch News article here.

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Have you heard about this photo? Have you seen the phenomenon? Tell us about it in the comments below.