#taylor column

The world's largest iceberg, A23a, is stuck. It's not beached; there are a thousand meters or more of water beneath it. But thanks to a quirk of the Earth's rotation, combined with underwater topology, A23a is stuck in place, spinning slowly for the foreseeable future.  (Image credit: A23a - D. Fox/BAS, diagram - IBSCO/NASA; via BBC News; submitted by Anne R.) Read the full article

The Earth's inner core is a hot, solid iron-rich alloy surrounded by a cooler, liquid outer core. The convection and rotation in this outer core creates our magnetic fields, but those magnetic fields can, in turn, affect the liquid metal flowing inside the Earth.  (Image credit: C. Finley et al.; research credit: A. Pothérat et al.; via APS Physics) Read the full article

Welcome to another year and another look back at FYFD's most popular posts. (Image credits: dam - Practical Engineering, ants - C. Chen et al., supernova - NOIRLab, sprinkler - K. Wang et al., wave tank - L-P. Euvé et al., "Dew Point" - L. Clark, paint - M. Huisman et al., iceberg - D. Fox, flame trough - S. Mould, sign - B. Willen, comet - S. Li, light pillars - N. Liao, chair - MIT News, Faraday instability - G. Louis et al., prominence - A. Vanoni) Read the full article

When rotating, fluids often act very differently than we expect. For example, an obstacle in a rotating flow will deflect flow around it at all heights. This is known as a Taylor column. (Image credit: DIYnamics)