Whirlpools are a memorable feature of the human experience of a tsunami. On the west
coast of Canada, Haida mythology from the Queen Charlotte Islands mentions a
whirling wave of foam in several stories that appear to describe tsunamis. A petroglyph
from southeast Alaska shows a spiral suggestive of a tsunami whirlpool inside the body
of a sea-monster. Hundreds of kilometers to the south, Salish carvings from the inland
side of southern Vancouver Island show whirlpool-like symbols in conjunction with
Thunderbird and Whale; supernatural characters used to explain the origins of
earthquakes and tsunamis by tribes on the outer coast of Vancouver Island.
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