What natural or artificial geographical structures that could allow a large-scale true "water going down the drain" whirlpool?
As a child, I was always fascinated by the propensity of water going down a drain to form a vortex. I created a world with a global ocean where there was a narrow body of land running north-south which had a tunnel running under the land from one side to the other, connecting the sea on one side to the other (think a "Panama Tunnel"). My vision was that the difference in sea-level from one side to the other would cause water to flow through, and not being on the equator, Coriolis forces would supply the necessary angular momentum to form a vortex.
Is this a valid means by which a vortex big enough to swallow a ship could occur? Are there any other means by which this could be achieved, either created or natural, but requiring nothing more than geography to achieve, i.e. no artificial energy input.
On geological terms, such a feature need not last all that long - a few tens of thousands of years would be plenty.
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