Snapped on December 26 by NASA’s Terra satellite, the recently released image shows the incredible huge swirl of water estimated to stretch nearly 150km across.

It looks like it could swallow a moderately sized island nation, but the “storm” is actually just a harmless eddy, also known as a “current ring”.

This one has formed off the Agulhas Current which flows around the southeastern coast and tip of South Africa.

And rather than suck unwitting life down to the ocean’s murky depths, the anticlockwise swirl is more likely to bring nutrients up to the surface.

Still, it’s a great pic, even though it’s not exactly the Terra satellite’s main mission.

NASA launched Terra back in 2003 as part of a multinational effort to monitor the spread of pollution around the Earth through a 15-year lifecycle.