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Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

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Chapter 15 -- The Maelstrom<br />

that is to say eight degrees altogether. Except that right under the Pole there lies a bare rock in<br />

the midst <strong>of</strong> the Sea. Its circumference is almost 33 French miles, and it is all <strong>of</strong> magnetic<br />

stone.<br />

The true magnetic pole is closer to Canada (labeled by Mercator as "California"). In Chapter 45,<br />

Subterranean Geophysics, we'll have more to say about this singularity.<br />

The Carta Marin (1539), the earliest detailed Scandinavian map, was crafted by the Swedish<br />

ecclesiastic Olaus Magnus. Note the "Horrenda Caribdis," sea monsters and icebergs.<br />

Magnus's depiction <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Moskenstrom in Historia de<br />

Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555)<br />

is shown to the right. He<br />

attributed the vortex to divine<br />

forces and deemed it stronger<br />

than the previously-known Sicilian<br />

whirlpool Charybdis.<br />

Norwegian priest Petter Das accurately described the Moskenstrom in The Trumpet <strong>of</strong> Nordland<br />

(c. 1685), attributing its strength to the phases <strong>of</strong> the moon, the current being strongest at the full<br />

and new phases. Unfortunately, Das wasn't translated into English.<br />

Johannes Herbinius, the "Calvinist Copernicus," wrote his thesis on "waterfalls" in 1678.<br />

DRAFT 1122//66//22001122<br />

Uppddaatteess aatt hhttttpp::////www. .uunnm. .eedduu//~rrhheeggggeenn//UnnddeerrggrroouunnddRi ivveerrss. .hhttml l<br />

160

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