Vortex In Latvian River Devours All That Enters

In 1841, Edgar Allan Poe referred to a maelstrom, or powerful whirlpool in the ocean, as a "whole sea ... lashed into ungovernable fury." Now 172 years later, a YouTube video titled "Amazing monstrous whirlpool" gives gravity to Poe's words, though (likely) on a slightly smaller scale. Set in Dviete, Latvia, near the banks of the Daugava River, the video depicts a mysterious whirlpool churning
-- and destroying -- all that enters. Huge chunks of ice? Gone. Floating islands of debris? Annihilated. "Swallowing everything dragged towards its direction," reads the description by Jānis Astičs, "this monstrous whirlpool looks as if a plug has been pulled from the ground beneath." Huffington Post