Pacific Whipped Into An Ocean of Froth

Yesterday, the shoreline north of Sydney was transformed into what reporters are calling ‘The Cappuccino Coast’.

From Daily Mail:

Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards' centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales. One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.

Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. These elements are churned together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles. These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore and as a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards, mass together and form foam.

The foam wall stretched for 30 miles out into the Pacific in a phenomenon not seen at the beach for more than three decades.