In the 1970s, Whitehead partitioned a container of fresh
water into two basins. He mixed in salt and black dye on one side
(left), representing the salty Mediterranean Sea; the clear, fresh
water on the right side represented the
much less salty Atlantic Ocean. The basins were connected by a narrow
channel (the Strait of Gibraltar), blocked by a sliding door. Whitehead
steadily rotated the entire apparatus to simulate Earth's rotation, and
when he slid open the door, a gyre of clear water spiraled clockwise
out of the narrow
chute onto the surface of the idealized Mediterranean. The experiment
solved the mystery of why the real-life Alborán Gyre forms in the
western Mediterranean.
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