Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Isla Socorro, a small volcanic island about 375 miles off
Mexico
's west coast,
sparks these paisley spiral clouds, called von Kármán vortices. They occur when a
prevailing wind hits an obstacle like an island, which disturbs the flow of air, send-
ing the clouds reeling downwind in long chains of eddies. Theodore von Kármán,
the physicist who first explained the phenomenon, was one of the founders of
NASA's jet propulsion lab.
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