The Milky Sea
Sailors have told for centuries of nights when the whole sea glowed white to the horizon, as if they were sailing across a field of snow.
What was reported
Sailors' logs from the Indian Ocean and beyond describe 'milky seas': nights when the ocean, without any moon, shone with a steady white light from horizon to horizon, bright enough to read by. Jules Verne wrote one into Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
In 1995, a British merchant ship, the Lima, reported sailing through one for six hours off Somalia. Ten years later, scientists searched old satellite images and found the same glowing patch, about the size of Connecticut.
Explanations offered
Milky seas are thought to be made by vast numbers of glowing bacteria, perhaps living on blooms of algae, which glow steadily rather than flashing like other sea creatures. Why they gather in such huge numbers, and how often, is still being studied.
- When
- Reported for centuries; seen from space in 2005
- Where
- Arabian Sea, off the Horn of Africa
- Witnesses
- Sailors, and a weather satellite
- Status
- Partly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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