A video is being shared on social media claiming it as the visuals of a giant whirlpool formed inside a river or a lake. Several social media users have shared this video describing it as a natural phenomenon caused by the changes in climate. Those posts can be seen here and here. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
![](https://factly.in/wp-content/uploads//2022/05/Giant-Whirlpool-formed-in-a-river-Claim-1024x428.jpg)
Claim: Video of a giant whirlpool formed inside a river.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows the giant ‘Glory Hole’, a man-made spillway constructed inside the Lake Berryessa in California. The spillway was constructed to drain the excess water in the reservoir during an overflow. The video does not show a natural whirlpool. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals was found in an article published by ‘The Sun’ on 03 March 2018. This article reported it as the visuals of the giant ‘Glory Hole’, a man-made spillway constructed inside the Lake Berryessa in California.
![](https://factly.in/wp-content/uploads//2022/05/Giant-Whirlpool-formed-in-a-river-Image-1.jpg)
When we searched for further details of this giant ‘Glory Hole’, we found that the spillway was constructed in 1957 as an alternative to the more common chute. Glory Hole, a 200 feet deep circular pipe with a diameter of 72 feet, will take in water like a drain once the reservoir is overcapacity. This spillway is used to control the overflow of the water in Lake Berryessa. A few other videos showing the water drain visuals of ‘Glory Hole’ can be seen here and here.
![](https://factly.in/wp-content/uploads//2022/05/Giant-Whirlpool-formed-in-a-river-Image-2.jpg)
To sum it up, video of a man-made spillway inside California’s Lake Berryessa was shared as the visuals of a giant natural whirlpool.