Everyone has that crazy aunt who posts every hour on the hour on Facebook. Sharing her extremely bias opinions on politics, cute photos of her kids, and the occasional decieving inaccurate article...
"The point where the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean have been found"
Upon doing my weekly facebook check-up, I was not surprised to see my aunt Beatrice reposted a video of the supposed Atlantic and Pacific Oceans "unable to mix". My initial reaction was extremely skeptical, I originally thought if this was true, wouldn't they have taught me that in elementary school? I decided to click on the post and further investigate the accuracy of this video.
NEWSFLASH: It is impossible to prevent water from mixing!
When I took the time to the time to research "Atlantic and Pacific ocean meet" every article depicted in the search engine had the word MYTH in the link. After reading two very credible sources from Anchorage Daily News (ADN) and Imgur, I found that this video was not even taken where the post said it was in the Gulf of Alaska. The video was taken on the British Columbia Ferry, that departs from Vancouver. The video is a representation of where "river meets ocean" in the Fraser River (freshwater) and Strait of Georgia (saltwater). Ben Anderson of ADN says:
"They do eventually mix, but you do come across these really strong gradients at these specific moments in time," he said. Such borders are never static, he added, as they move around and disappear altogether, depending on the level of sediment and the whims of the water." - Ben Anderson, Anchorage Daily News
Why Is This Important?
Obviously, you can't believe everything you see online (visit my "Check the Source" Blog post for more). It is important to know what you're reading especially on easily-decieving social media platforms like Facebook. The video was relaying inaccurate information to the 16.1 million people who viewed it, the 420 thousand who shared it, the 189 thousand who liked it, and the 27 thousand who commented on it. My Aunt Beatrice believed the video and shared this post on her timeline, resulting in her Facebook friends falling for the inaccurate video as well. Some friends even commented on how "freakish" the video was and questioning the components that made the water "touch but not mix". It is important to be aware of media literacy and how tricky it can be to believe a simple Facebook post like my aunt's.
FOR MORE INFO:
https://www.adn.com/science/article/mythbusting-place-where-two-oceans-meet-gulf-alaska/2013/02/05/