Matej Lipar / Google Maps
New research has found that a tornado with winds of 300 kilometers per hour left a huge 11 kilometer long scar in outback Australia.
Earlier this year, a caver was analyzing satellite images of the Nullarbor Plain when he came across something unexpected: a huge and mysterious scar etched into the arid landscape.
The discovery intrigued scientists. Upon further investigation, they realized that the scar had been created by a fierce tornado that no one knew had happened. These conclusions were presented in a published in the Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science.
Tornadoes are a known threat in the United States and other countries. But they also happen in Australia.
Without the power of technology, this remarkable example of nature’s ferocity would have gone unnoticed. It is important to study tornado consequences to help us predict and prepare for the next big tornado.
History of tornadoes in Australia
Tornadoes are violent, rotating columns of air that fall from thunderstorms to the ground, bringing wind speeds that often exceed 200 kilometers per hour. They can cause massive destruction – uprooting trees, destroying buildings and throwing debris great distances.
Tornadoes have been recorded on all continents except Antarctica. They occur most frequently in the Great Plains region of the United States and the northeastern India-Bangladesh region.
The first tornado observed by settlers in Australia occurred in 1795 in the suburbs of Sydney. But the tornado was only confirmed by Western scientists in the late 19th century.
In recent decades, documented cases in Australia include a 2013 tornado that crossed northeast Victoria and traveled to the New South Wales border. He brought winds between 250 and 300 kilometers per hour and damaged Murray River townships.
And in 2016, a severe storm produced at least seven tornadoes across central and eastern South Australia.
It is important for scientists to accurately predict tornadoes so they can issue warnings to communities. This is why the Nullarbor tornado scar was useful for the study.
A whirlwind mystery
The Nullarbor Plain is a remote, dry, treeless expanse of land in South Australia. The man who discovered the scar had been using satellite images from Google Earth to look for caves and other karst features on the Nullabor Plain.
Karst is a landscape covered in limestone that has distinct landforms. The discovery of the scar came to the attention of scientists through researcher collaboration network and explorers studying the Nullarbor karst.
The scar stretches from Western Australia across the border to South Australia. It is located 20 kilometers north of the Trans-Australian Railway and 90 kilometers east-northeast of Forrest, a former railway village.
Satellite images of the location were compared over several years to determine that the tornado occurred between November 16th and 18th, 2022. Blue circular patterns appeared along the scar, indicating pools of water associated with heavy rain.
The results were in the Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science.
What was found
The scar has 11 kilometers long and between 160 and 250 meters wide. It features striking patterns called “cycloidal marks,” formed by tornado suction vortices. This suggests that the tornado was no ordinary storm, but rather category F2 or F3 strong, spinning with destructive winds of more than 200 kilometers per hour.
The tornado probably lasted between seven and 13 minutes. The scar’s characteristics suggest that the rotating wind inside the tornado moved clockwise. Everything indicates that the tornado moved from west to east – which is consistent with the direction of a strong cold front that was in the region at the time.
Local meteorological observations also recorded a intense cloud cover and precipitation during this period in November 2022.
Unlike tornadoes that hit populated areas, this one did not damage homes or towns. But even so, it left its mark, eroding soil and vegetation and reshaping the Earth’s surface.
It is notable the fact that the scar still being clearly visible 18 months after the eventboth in satellite images and on the ground. This is probably due to the fact that vegetation grows slowly in this dry landscape, so it had not yet covered erosion.
