Hurricane Laura brought a path of destruction along the Gulf Coast through Louisiana and Texas, killing at least 14 people.
However, before she made landfall Thursday, her wake of devastation also carved a stunning natural phenomenon — a large eddy.
Photos of the swirling water current were taken from about 500 feet up near Key West, the National Weather Service wrote on social media.
Laura was still a tropical storm when she passed the area, creating the eddy.
“You may have seen an eddy if you’ve ever gone canoeing and you see a small whirlpool of water while you paddle through the water,” weather officials wrote. “The swirling motion of eddies in the ocean cause nutrients that are normally found in colder, deeper waters to come to the surface.”
Like hurricanes, eddies of significant size are given names. A large eddy that formed in June 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico was named Eddy Franklin after founding father Ben Franklin, who was known to have studied the Gulf Stream.