TikTok has shared a lot of Halloween vibes, from a jack-o-lantern named Lewis to a blow-up costume that sadly can’t deal with the wind. Everyone may be preparing for Christmas now, but a recent video proves we can still enjoy some eerie and fun moments.
TikTok account @pubity (sharing from Elizabeth Parker/ViralHog) posted a video of a man hurtling a pumpkin straight into a whirlpool. That would already get your attention, right? You would expect the pumpkin to sink and never emerge again. That poor pumpkin will never get carved on Oct. 31 or turned into a pie at Thanksgiving. Okay, so maybe the pumpkin would prefer to get stuck in a whirlpool! Instead, as the caption on the video says, “then it popped out from the other side.” Whoa!
Commenters were dazed by what they witnessed, with many wondering about the ins and outs of whirlpools and one TikTok user joking that the pumpkin is singing “hello from the other side” like Adele. One person joked that the squash is now in the Stranger Things Upside Down (I would believe that). Another wrote, “I need the pumpkins pov.” Me too! How scared were they? The most unforgettable comment, though, was the person who asked, “Did I just witness teleportation???”
One commenter shared what could be the answer to this stunning situation: “there’s a pipe connecting both sides.” They continued, “but the water level on one side is higher than on the other so it gets pushed through the pipe and it creates a whirlpool.”
Okay, but this whole whirlpool thing is still confusing and awe-inspiring, so let’s find out more. According to World Atlas, when two currents come into contact with one another, that causes a whirlpool. Sometimes, you might hear a whirlpool called a vortex. That’s a much scarier name, but no one wants to come into contact with either one. Other times, you’ll see a waterfall with a whirlpool on the bottom, and since I’ve always had an irrational fear of waterfalls (irrational since I’ve never been near one), that isn’t what I want to hear. Live Science also explains that maelstroms are deadly whirlpools. As it turns out, people can definitely create whirlpools. Thanks to a lot of rain that led to floods in Oklahoma in 2015, a whirlpool was made in Lake Texoma because it needed to be drained.
People might have heard about whirlpools when Glee star Naya Rivera tragically drowned in the summer of 2020. Some wondered if a whirlpool could have been involved. Erin Johnson, who lives in Ventura County, was in charge of a Change.org petition and said, “Lake Piru is a very deep lake with very bad whirlpools.” But the sheriff’s office communications officer Captain Eric Buschow said to Business Insider, “I’ve never heard of whirlpool there.” Although that might not have been what happened, this devastating story is a reminder of the real dangers of drowning.
There is no doubt that whirlpools are horrifying, and this firsthand account gives me a lot of anxiety. The truth is that attempting to escape is extremely difficult, and as this man shared, you don’t want to breathe in any water. And now you have to worry about whirlpools coming from outer space, too. No, really: according to CNN, scientists discovered that Mars is creating “giant whirlpools.” I don’t think I’m going to go swimming anywhere anytime soon.