HOW THE OCEAN CONCOCTS EARTH’S MOST VIOLENT STORMS - AND HOW WE’RE ABLE TO FLY RIGHT INTO THEM

Words by Ailsa Harvey

If the weather symbolised its emotions, Earth would have some dramatic mood swings. Over the course of a spring day in temperate parts of the world you can be exposed to illuminating sunshine, pouring rain and a torrent of hail as the weather changes its mind. But these changes are insignificant when compared to the violent outbursts that erupt from the middle of the planet’s vast oceans.

In fact, the ocean could be considered the moodiest location on Earth, with its frenzied waves colliding at the surface, extreme currents pulling underneath and relentless gales rushing over the top. Covering the majority of the planet, his extensive body of water can move with mesmerising power.

Hurricanes are storms of tremendous size and wind speeds with the power to do devestating damage. Nothing living can outrun a hurricane, not even a cheetah - the world’s fastest land animal. They’re brought into existence by the connection between the ocean and the atmosphere. These swirling giants are formed from built-up pressure, where warm water is lifted from the ocean’s surface and into the atmosphere to become an unstoppable force of spinning air. These massive storms have been known to reach sizes over 2,000 kilometres in diameter as they surge across water and land, displacing anything and everything in their path.

Hurricanes are an undeniable threat to humans because they are one of the rare products of Earth we have no control over. For those who have witnessed their destruction firsthand, it can’t be denied that they have the power to ruin lives.

Yet we still look at this power in awe. These enormous, whirling systems are concocted from natural forces alone. They occur spontaneously and maintain their astonishing peak force for many days at a time. As if armed for an attack on the land, they move with the wind while firing their weapons: wipeout waves, flooding rain and gusts of wind that put human-made shows of strength to shame.

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Nature holds the ultimate power, whether that is used to destroy or to create. Looking past the ruinous aftermath that follows a hurricane, their path can also display some benefits to the environment. Moving in a rotating pattern around a calm centre, these storms help to maintain a global heat balance across the planet, without which the poles and tropics would have much more extreme temperatures.

There is already a stark difference between these areas, and with almost all hurricanes moving outwards from the equator, tropical storms channel heat energy effectively to colder waters.

A hurricane’s job as an agent of dispersal doesn’t end at sea. If their winds can make uprooting the thickest trees look effortless, imagine how easy it is for them to carry tiny, lightweight seeds that have evolved to harness the wind. With speeds and power unlike the gusts and breezes that many plants use to disperse seeds, hurricanes can spread plant species much further than the wind would. In some cases they have even brought distant areas destroyed by fires and other environmental disasters back to life.