12. Decoding the verses of the Holy Quran
It is worth noting that Prophet Muhammad never limbed into a boat. Biographies, both old and new, suggest that he never spent time at the ocean. His journeys to Syria took him into remote hinterland areas. Quite clearly, the following comment does not sound like it could come from a man who has never seen seawater in his life.
“And He is the One Who merges the two bodies of water: one fresh and palatable and the other salty and bitter, placing between them a barrier they cannot cross.”
Chapter 25 (Surah Al-Furqan) verse 53
Did the people of the Prophet’s time could have realized what was meant. After all, there were no seas near Makkah or Madinah. So, let’s decipher this verse of the Holy Quran.
The barrier
It is true to the amazement of those who would have traveled by ships across seas. There are several locations, such as at Cape Peninsula (South Africa) where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean, or where the North Sea waters join with the waters of the Baltic Sea, or the Raritan Bay water joins with the New York Harbor waters, or the Blue Nile waters joining with the White Nile waters, or the two seas at Bab at-Mundeb, etc.
Oceanographers and the Sea Barrier
It was in the 19h century that oceanographers first discovered that ocean waters were not the same all over the globe. Samples taken from a number of locations were different from each other in respect of salinity, temperature, density, types of marine organisms, etc. The study’s findings were confirmed when the Americans undertook the study in 1933. why did the seas not mix and become homogeneous in spite of the effect of tide and other factors such as surface and internal waves, sea currents? Further studies revealed that there happen to be ‘barriers’ laid between the seas which helps waters on each side of them to maintain their distinctive properties.
It has been observed that the barrier seems to exist even to the depths of up to 1,400 meters and even at long distances both bodies of water maintain their individual temperatures, salinity and other properties.
The zone of separation to which the Quran refers as a “barrier” has different salinity from the waters on the two sides and there is no strangeness involved in the phenomenon, except that mankind has learnt of it only since about a century or less. The waters of the Earth’s oceans and seas DO MIX, but only on a restricted scale, and it will most likely take millennia to finish globally.
The difference in densities
The difference in density between the two waters can lead to slow mixing. For instance, the difference of density of the order 0.1kg/m3 can cause several days for mixing to occur. In case of fresh water joining sea water, the mixing would take yet longer because density difference between fresh river water and salty sea water is high, and so, is calm. The boundary is also visible clearly.
Experiment at home
Simple experiments can be conducted at home to watch the phenomenon of two waters not mixing with each other. E.g. if blue food color is added to a well-mixed sugary water, and then a red-colored water is gently poured over it, the color of the new mixture remains blue at bottom, red on top, and minimal purple in the middle. The result persists, perhaps for days.
The Quran does not discuss technical details. Its objective is to make a man think about the text, and ask himself: could this be a human production?
What prevents the water from mixing?
The zone separating the upper mixed layer from the deeper ocean is usually characterized by substantial Vertical gradients in water characteristics. To maintain stability in the water column, lighter (less dense) water must be placed above heavier (denser) water…
During summer at mid-latitudes, surface heating from the sun can cause a shallow seasonal thermocline (pycnocline) that connects the top mixed layer to the deeper, more permanent thermocline, or main pycnocline.’
Similarly, in subpolar locations, seasonal summer imports of fresh water near the surface from rainfall, rivers, or ice melt can create a seasonal halocline (pycnocline) that separates the fresh surface from the deeper saltier waters. The vertical density gradient in the primary pycnocline is very severe, and the turbulence inside the top mixed layer cannot penetrate deeper into the ocean due to the high stability of the main pycnocline. The primary pycnocline’s stability acts as a barrier against turbulent mixing processes, and water beneath this depth has not come into contact with the top in a long time.
Vertical gradients in water can refer to differences in water temperature, density, or hydraulic head, and they can indicate a number of things, including:
Blue Energy
Several decades of studies of chemical reactions at where the sea and river waters meet has led to the discovery that the chemical processes taking place at the barrier could lead to a new method of energy extraction in massive quantities. This new energy is dubbed blue energy because it creates no pollution but could in addition prove to solve the pollution problem created by the burning of fossil fuels.
According to one estimate, this “blue energy” is so plentiful that it could meet all our needs – if we can find an effective way to tap it.
This developing technology of extracting energy, which is also referred to as the “osmotic power,” (because it relies on osmosis with ion specific membranes) depends on energy extraction from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water. To explain in simplest possible terms, two solutions of waters of different densities are separated by a thin membrane that lets water through but not salt ions. This causes less dense water to pass through to the other side. The pressure that builds up can be used to drive turbines which produce energy.
Plants have been set up in many parts of the world, such as Australia, Holland, Norway, UK, to name a few, to produce electricity through this process. At present the yield is low when measured against the costs, but improvements are expected.
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