A video showing waterbodies of two different colours is being shared with a claim that the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean do not 'mix' with one another due to the difference in water density, temperature and salinity.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
This post had 10K likes and 1.3K shares at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is this true?: No, the claim is false.
The video in question has been created by merging two different videos. One video shows the moment the Yellow River in China meeting the Bohai Sea and the other video shows the Fraser River in Canada flowing into the Strait of Georgia.
Secondly, experts and reports say that the two oceans do mix with one another and the phenomenon explained in the viral claim is not true.
How did we find out?: We divided the viral video into keyframes and ran a Google reverse image search on some of the keyframes.
We came across a video on Instagram by an account 'slormp1' that was uploaded on 31 December 2023.
The video aimed to debunk the viral video claiming that the two oceans do not mix.
The video mentioned that the viral clip showed videos of two separate places where rivers meet the ocean.
The first clip showing the brownish spaces is of the Yellow river in China while the other is of the Fraser river in Canada.
Further, we ran searches to verify these locations.
Location 1: We looked for the visuals of the Yellow sea in China and came across a video by China Daily Channel on YouTube that was uploaded on 18 August 2023.
The caption read, "Where the Yellow River meets the sea: A magical view."
We compared the frames of the viral video with the YouTube video and found similarities.
Here are the similarities between the two.
(Altered by The Quint)
Here, the river water appears to be separated from the sea water due to turbidity, as the Yellow River has sediment-rich water, while the sea does not.
Additionally, we came across more reports and videos that showed the Yellow river merging with the sea water. You can find those here, here and here.
Location 2: We looked for visuals of the Fraser river delta in Canada and came across a video on YouTube by a channel called, Maryan Pears on 5 July 2015.
It was uploaded with a caption that read, "When the River Meets the Ocean (Fraser River water flows into the Strait of Georgia)"
Its description explained that the Fraser River water flows into the ocean water of the Strait of Georgia.
The visible difference in the area where both waterbodies meet is due to the difference in the levels of salt in both of them, with the river (freshwater) having lower salinity than the ocean (salt water).
We compared the frames of the viral video with the YouTube video and found similarities.
Here is the comparison between the two.
(Photo:Altered by The Quint)
Do the oceans mix?: The Atlantic and Pacific meet at Cape Horn, at the southernmost tip of Chile, South America. In this region, a strong current carries water from west to east, sweeping water from the Pacific into the Atlantic.
We came across reports by BBC Science Focus and Princeton Library, which mentioned that the two oceans do mix together.
BBC noted the two oceans mix and are not separate. Though there is a difference between their densities and salinity levels, water currents and eddies cause both oceans to mix gradually.
However, ocean water may not always appear to mix due to surface currents on water, which play a role in how water flows on the ocean's surface, as per the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.
The region experiences strong currents; hence, the water flows west to east, "sweeping water from the Pacific into the Atlantic."
BBC also wrote, "in reality, there’s no border between them, and currents continually flow between them and mix their waters."
Additionally, the report mentioned that light-coloured, sediment-rich freshwater from melted glaciers meet the dark, salty ocean water in the Gulf of Alaska and mix together.
Conclusion: The viral video has falsely claimed that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans do not merge with one another. Even the video shows two separate locations that show two different rivers mixing with ocean water.
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