maelstrom

noun

1. A large and violent whirlpool.

   “To his right fell a gleaming sheet of water, and below it was a maelstrom, that made one giddy by its terrific gyrations.”

   “The falukah plunged over a waterfall and was almost submerged, was caught again in a maelstrom and went twirling on in the blackness.”

   “A hulking shape burst through the doorway and hurtled down the corridor, leaving a maelstrom of air currents in his wake.”

2. (figuratively)A chaotic or turbulent situation.

   “It was of Jean Paul's doing: some single billow in that vast World-Mahlstrom of Humour, with its heaven-kissing coruscations, which is now, alas, all congealed in the frost of death!”

   “He escaped at last, dizzy from the maelstrom of conflicting emotions that had caught and whirled him.”

   “The terminal station, Richmond, is managed by South West Trains, heirs to the London & South Western Railway, and here the District fades into a railway maelstrom, since Richmond is not only on the Waterloo-Reading line but is also the westerly terminus of the London Overground.”

   “A Twitter post intended to celebrate a funny photo of Abby, a “chonk” sea otter at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, instead stirred an online maelstrom of criticism, KNTV reports.”

   “An officer makes his way through the maelstrom to report a serious fire in one of the turrets. Rozhestvensky laconically orders him to try and put it out, as there isn't much he can do from inside the conning tower.”