‘Worm tornado’ takes over Hoboken pavement and leaves scientists baffled

It’s not uncommon for worms to emerge out of the ground after rain but the way these creatures circled a spot on the pavement has left scientists scratching their heads.

A bizarre “worm tornado” which emerged on a pavement has left scientists baffled.

The creepy phenomena unfolded in a New Jersey park near the Hudson River with hundreds of worms forming a cyclone-like shape.

Adding to the mystery, the worm spiral appeared on the concrete walkway outside an apartment building.

A resident of Hoboken, New Jersey was out for a morning walk in a park near the Hudson River on Thursday, when she spotted hundreds of worms spread along the pavement, reports Live Science.

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Hundreds of worms flooded the sidewalk.

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But then she noticed something even more strange – a number of the worms were creating a spiral where the edge of the grass met the concrete.

She noticed there were no open pipes nearby and on a wall of a nearby building, the critters dribbled down the kerb and into the swirl.

She then sent photographs of the spooky spectacle to city councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, who tweeted out the nightmarish pics of the hordes of invertebrate annelids, asking: “Worm Tornado?

“Has anyone ever seen anything like this?”

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Scientists don’t know why they formed the spiral.

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But what caused the wormnado has stumped scientists.

One of them, Kyungsoo Yoo, a professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate at the University of Minnesota, told Live Science: “This tornado shape is really interesting.”

He added though worms are known for mass-emerging from soil after rain, he had never seen them form a spiral before.

Lab leader Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, said because it was unknown what type of worms made the spiral, any conclusions about their behaviour would be speculation.

The phenomenon has been dubbed a ‘wormnado’.

Nevertheless, theories have been swirling on Twitter including one of “earthworm herding”, while some thought it could be a massive earthworm orgy.

Others thought worms resurfaced en masse because of the heavy rain that had been swamping the area.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission