A reverse (or rip) current is a spontaneously occurring sea coastal current perpendicular to the coastline. It usually occurs during low tide in places where there are sand bars, reefs or shoals near the shore. Because of them, the water cannot return to the sea evenly, so the main flow rushes at high speed into the strait between the obstacles and fades away immediately behind them. As a result, a strong current is formed that can instantly carry a person several tens of meters from the shore. The width of the current varies from 3 to 50 meters, and the speed of the water flow in it is from 2 km/h to 20 km/h.
Why is it dangerous?
According to statistics, more than 80% of deaths of swimmers on sea and ocean beaches occur precisely because of reverse currents. The main danger of such a current is that it occurs very close to the shore - where no one expects danger. You can stand in the water a couple of meters from the edge and suddenly find yourself caught in a strong current. Taken by surprise, the victims try to struggle and row towards the shore. However, doing this is practically useless; the person simply becomes exhausted and dies. In addition, those who do not know how to swim usually splash near the shore.Where can he be found?
Reverse current can occur where there is surf: mainly in the seas and oceans, but it also occurs in big lakes. Strong rip currents most often occur in places where there are breakwaters, dams, reefs, coastal islands, spits and shoals. If you're going on vacation where surfers like to hang out, you're likely to see rip currents.How to recognize it?
With reverse flow you can usually notice:- a strip of rushing water perpendicular to the shore;
- an area of water near the shore that differs in color from the rest of the water surface;
- foam quickly floating away from the shore into the sea;
- There are waves along the entire coast, but in one area several meters wide there are none.
If you are going abroad, remember the phrase rip currents and do not go into the water where you see it on flags and signs.
What to do if you get caught in a rip current?
If you feel like you are being dragged into the sea, try to shout or signal to others so that they notify the rescuers. Don't panic and never row against the current. Instead, try swimming parallel to the shore: if the current is not very strong, you will most likely be able to get out of it quickly. If you can’t swim out of the current, then save your energy and swim forward with the current. It will weaken quite quickly, and then you can swim to the side and then return to shore.
How scary! Maybe it’s better not to go into the water at all?
In fact, everything is not so scary if you know how the reverse flow works. Firstly, only the top layer of water moves quickly, which means it won’t drag you to the bottom and won’t overwhelm you with a wave. Secondly, the width of the current, as a rule, does not exceed 20 meters, which means that you can try to get out of it by swimming quite a bit along the shore. And finally, the length of such a current is not very long: it will not drag you further than 100 meters. If you swim where there are lifeguards, they will get to you in a couple of minutes.When going on vacation to hot countries, tourists usually dream of a calm, gentle sea, caressing their feet, transparent and filled with many colorful fish and beautiful corals. Isn't it wonderful to lie on the sand, drinking juice from a freshly cut coconut from a palm tree and feel the pleasant coolness of the sea waves washing your feet?
The last thing you want is to get into trouble at such moments, right?
Unfortunately, the sea is fraught with many dangers. It's insidious. Especially to those who don't know about sea habits, to unprepared people. Alas, this is a fact - 99% of Russians can be classified as such people. There is a chance that you or someone you know is at risk.
One of the most common and main problems that people swimming in the sea may encounter is the so-called rip current (rip current). In Phuket, several people drown every week for this reason during the rainy season.
What is this rip current that is responsible for 80% of drownings at sea, you ask?
The sea does not stand still. It fluctuates. That's why sometimes waves appear on the sea. They come, hit the shore and then leave. But how?! After all, new and new waves come after them! At some point, the sea chooses places for itself where it is easier for water to go back to depth. These places may be associated with the bottom topography and may form during storms. If we're talking about sandy beaches, then there is nothing easier for the sea than to wash channels in the sand for yourself. Water begins to flow through these channels. A rip current appears in them.
As a rule, than stronger waves at sea, the stronger the rip current. But there are exceptions, so don’t relax.
What to do if you still find yourself in a stream? The answer is simple: do not panic! Remember that the main thing you can do now is to stay on the surface of the water. There are a few simple tips that will help you save:
Row parallel to the shore, or don't row at all.
This is the most important thing to remember. You have fallen into a canal, you are starting to be pulled away from the shore, and you are becoming scared. You begin to row towards the shore to feel the ground under your feet again, but this is wrong! Some of the rip currents reach speeds of up to 3 m/s. A person can't swim that fast. Even athletes. Therefore, you simply have no chance of swimming against the current. Look at this picture:
This schematic images ripa.
The width of the channel is usually 5–15 m. Therefore, if you swim parallel to the shore, you won’t have to row very long to get out of the current.
The current is losing its strength. You won't be dragged out to sea forever.
Most often, the current has the shape of a horseshoe, so it can bring you back to shore.
Dive under the waves attacking you
I repeat, your main task is to stay on the surface. Watch what's happening around you and don't let the waves hit you unexpectedly. Be prepared for them. In fact, perhaps no waves will crash on you because you are in the channel. But just in case you need to be prepared.
Wave your hand to get attention
Perhaps screaming at the top of your lungs is not best strategy to attract attention. But waving your hand, inviting help, can be useful. Rescuers can quickly respond to this gesture. And perhaps people on the shore will also pay attention to you.
Do not panic!
I don’t think it’s shameful to repeat it twice: don’t panic. Don't waste your precious energy on these nonsense.
Finally, I suggest you watch two videos about rips on English language(if you don’t know the language, at least watch the video).
First short:
The second beautiful one:
And remember: if you see red flags on the beach prohibiting swimming, the best thing you can do for yourself is not to swim. Don't go into water deeper than knee-deep, or at all. This way you will definitely protect yourself. While on vacation, don’t forget that you have a brain and it can think.
I sincerely hope that you will not have the need to test my advice in practice. I wish you a pleasant holiday without unnecessary incidents!
There are many applied, reporting and entertaining texts written on the Internet on the topic “what a tourist needs to know before going to the sea,” but this particular article makes sense to read with the utmost attention and seriousness.
If you are going to the sea, no matter what it is or where, you should know this information. 95% of drowned people in the world died precisely because they did not know about RIP-currents or rip currents. Do you know what the abbreviation RIP stands for? "Rest in peace" in English means "rest in peace."
This is a flow of water perpendicular to the shore. Without going into scientific description occurrence of countercurrents, then the explanation looks like this.
The waves, the surf, which constantly bubbles along the edge of the shore, washes a smooth ridge of sand under the water. Mound, ridge, wall, spit - call it what you want. This ridge is not visible from the shore, it stretches under water along the entire line of the beach or only partially, is present there constantly or is washed up only at certain times of the year (and it happens that in different time day) - but he is there. You probably remember that there is a bottom that becomes deeper literally from the second step, and after a couple of steps it suddenly becomes shallow, and you begin to climb a small slope under water. It is he.
Rip current occurs when in its own weak point the sandy ridge cannot withstand the pressure of the rolling water and is washed away. Do you understand, right? A hole appears in the underwater wall, and all the water to the right and left of the hole, held back by this wall, rushes into it, creating an instant, incredibly strong and very narrow stream of water that knocks you off your feet. mountain river and carries a person away from the shore into the open sea.
Well, in the case of an underwater spit, which does not stretch along the entire coast - at the very edge of the spit, with each outgoing wave an underwater jet appears due to the difference in the volume of water outflow. Where nothing interferes with the water, the sea simply moves back. The braid, preventing the outflow lower layers water, causes them to accelerate.
What are rip currents?
According to some reports, the width of the rip can vary from 2-3 to 50 meters, and the current speed can reach from 4 to 16 km/h. And if with minimal indicators you get off with a slight fright, then if you get into a large rip that can drag you half a kilometer into the sea, it is very important not to panic and remember everything that you are reading now.
Rip current, aka counter current, aka rip current, draft, breaker wave- found on most ocean beaches in the world. Where a rescue service is organized and the beach is more or less under the supervision of the state or an adjacent hotel, in areas where rip currents are present, identification signs are always installed and there are information boards with short instructions “what to do if...”.
And there are spontaneous rip currents that arise each time in a new place and with different characteristics. These are the most terrible ones, dangerous for their unpredictability. A mother and a child are standing waist-deep in water, playing in one place for four hours and everything is wonderful. Then there is noise, foam, and before mother and child even have time to shout, they find themselves a hundred meters from the shore. It's very scary.
What is the danger of such currents?
It’s an incredible, paralyzing horror when you don’t understand what’s happening and you see that the shore is getting further and further away, and no one on the shore understands how to help or what needs to be done. What’s sad is that even a husband or a passerby who jumps after him and doesn’t know about the rip current and how to fight it has every chance of dying. Did I manage to scare you? Do you understand how serious this is? So here it is.
It’s not the sea, not the rip current, or even poor swimming skills that kills people—it’s panic. Panic prevents you from assessing the situation and making a decision; panic interferes with everything and pushes the majority of morally unprepared people to the most obvious, but most disastrous act - to row back to the shore.
Even an Olympic champion is unable to row against the current at a speed of 15 km/h. I’m not having a nightmare now - master swimmers, strong, trained athletes drowned in rips. After all, you have to row not just quickly, but faster than the flow, in order to get to the shore. Panic causes people to wave their arms until they are completely exhausted, which leads to their death.
How to escape in a rip current
A rip is just a stream a few steps wide, and to get out of it you just need to row not towards the shore, but to the side. You are in the river, which means that now the calm sea is the shore and salvation for you, swim to it. Don’t resist the flow, swim, gradually rowing to the side; your primary task is to get out of the flow. And if you find so much courage in yourself, then lie down on your back and wait - after a minute or two the flow itself will let you go. After this, swim to the side and begin to return to the shore.
It is very important to save strength and breath, and not allow panic to paralyze the will. A rip current is not a whirlpool; it does not pull you to the bottom. By the time you swim out, those on the shore will already have figured out how to help you, and God bless you, if you were sane and swam on the beach with lifeguards, and not somewhere in the wilderness. And I won’t say anything about the case if you still don’t know how to swim. Although no, I have one piece of advice for you - buy a PPE swimming board, tie it to your wrist and go into the sea only where there are no prohibitory flags and where there is a person on duty on the tower with a life preserver.
How to understand where there are rips
The main sign of the danger of a rip is red flags and a lifeguard running along the beach, waving his arms and swearing at you in all the languages of the world. But rip currents also have others external signs that will help you spot danger even without flags in the sand:
- Rip is a river in the sea. If in the general pattern of the waves you see seething water or a clear stripe perpendicular to the shore, this is it.
- Color Difference sea water. The entire beach is blue, and in one place the water turns white - this is a rip.
- Marine debris, algae, foam that moves from the shore into the sea in an unusually organized manner is a rip.
P.S. Don't get caught in the rip. And if you get caught, don’t panic.
Rip currents (RIP CURRENTS). A danger we know nothing about.
This is not written about in newspapers, not talked about on radio and television, and is not taught in school. But this is precisely the most common cause of death in the waters of the world's oceans.
Every traveler vacationing on the coast of any ocean, any sea, or even a large lake must know that the danger lies not in the features of the coastline, not in the depth, and not in the inability to swim, not in big waves or stormy weather.
Danger can lurk close to the shore on any beach in the world, especially on beaches with a gently indented coastline. In this article we will talk about RIP CURRENTS or RIP CURRENTS.
The surprise lies in the fact that even if you are sunbathing on the Cote d'Azur of a fashionable Mediterranean resort, this does not mean that this danger does not threaten you.
To my surprise, I myself learned about this not long ago, although I had the opportunity to vacation on the coasts of many seas and oceans. I love to swim far and long, but to my shame I have never even heard about the danger that threatens just off the coast.
It is strange that for some reason such important information is known only to specialists and people who survived rip currents. Not even all athletes involved in water sports know about this.
So, rip current or RIP (RIP CURRENTS) this is a current formed near the shore, as a result of the outflow of a huge amount of water brought ashore by a tidal wave. Rip currents are the most common cause of drowning among vacationers on ocean and sea beaches. For its formation, the weather and the strength of the tidal wave are absolutely unimportant.
It can form anywhere on the coast, at any time of the day or night, and be of any speed and length. RIP CURRENTS always directed in the opposite direction from the shore, that is, towards the sea or ocean.
There are places on the coasts of the world where rip currents constantly form, which is due to the peculiarity of the coastline. Usually local or rescuers are well aware of them and the dangerous zone is marked with signs, but as I already said, RIP can form on any part of the coast.
Formed rip current creates a corridor from the shore to the open sea, which can be a couple of meters wide, or maybe 50-100 meters. The wider the corridor, the faster the water flows into the sea. The most narrow RIPs have a water speed of 5 km/h. And this is the speed of water flow in an average river. In wide rip currents, water speed reaches 15 km/h and higher.
To make it more clear, I will give an example of the emerging rip current easily drags a person of any weight and physical fitness away from the shore, even if he is standing waist-deep in water. How far this is depends on the strength of the current. If you find yourself in a RIP, your life is in mortal danger.
You can be a multi-time Olympic world champion swimmer or an amphibian born from a killer whale and a great white shark, but if you don't know how to swim out of RIP, then you are 100% at risk of death by drowning. 
How does this happen? You stand chest-deep in the water and enjoy the warm turquoise water and sea spray hitting your face from the tidal wave and suddenly, after the next tide, the flow of flowing water knocks you off your feet and begins to carry you into the ocean or sea. This is easy, because the deeper you go into the water, the more unstable your position is.
What's next? Then you begin to actively row back to the shore, but without results. The current carries you further and further. Gradually, and for some, panic begins immediately. The strongest and most psychologically stable continue to actively fight the current, but again everything is in vain.
You are further and further from the shore. Strength runs out, breathing becomes difficult, panic squeezes the throat with a steel grip, most begin to scream and call for help. A few more minutes and you feel that your arms and legs are filled with lead from fatigue; you only have enough strength to at least stay on the water. Movements become chaotic, horror deprives you of the last ability to think normally.
The fear intensifies even more when you see how far you have been carried away from the shore and realize that you no longer have the strength. It is at such moments that a person really comes face to face with his death. The knowledge that you are about to drown deprives your body of latest stocks strength, your heart is already pounding in your throat at a terrifying pace, you take deep, convulsive breaths and begin to grab water with your mouth from the rolling waves.
The arms and legs are not just tired, they no longer obey at all, mortal fatigue falls on shoulder girdle, cramps calf muscles. There is no longer any possibility of simply staying on the water. Your body is exhausted and suffers from hypoxia (lack of oxygen), you frantically try to jump out of the water with your whole body and breathe in air, but you tire it even more.
Finally, another wave splashes in your face and the water hits you. Airways in your nose and throat, you cannot breathe because a terrible pain pierced your brain and water is everywhere, your lungs and chest are bursting. A little more water and you are no longer visible on the surface and there is nothing more than horror and powerlessness. As soon as the water gets into your lungs, you will lose consciousness and go to the bottom. And if they don’t immediately pull you out and give you artificial respiration, then only death will follow.
This is how those who drown are sober, healthy and in good physical shape die. I repeat once again, what are you a swimmer in case with rip currents (RIP CURRENTS) will only delay your death and prolong your agony. BUT ONLY!
What to do? Is there salvation? Of course there is! But provided that you know how to swim. If you get caught in a countercurrent and are carried into the open ocean or sea, you need to perform the following algorithm:
1. Do not panic. RIP CURRENTS will never pull you under water and will never drag you an unimaginable distance from the shore. NEVER RESIST HIM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. That is, never start swimming against it immediately to the shore. This is certain death.
3. Estimate the width of the corridor you find yourself in. Sometimes this can be done by looking around, if you know the visual signs of RIP, which I will talk about below. To do this you need to remain calm. If you panic, see point one.
4. If you notice that the width rip current (RIP CURRENTS) is small or we couldn’t determine it, then we begin to swim steadily, not too intensely, to the right or left along the shore (it doesn’t matter) perpendicular to the current. But under no circumstances should you go straight to the shore. If the width of the current is small, you will definitely swim out and after sailing a short distance from it, turn around and swim to the shore, you will no longer be in danger. You can raise your hand and signal to the rescuers on the shore.
5. The current is wide and it is impossible to swim out. We signal the rescuers on the shore by raising our hand or shouting “HELP” for help. Then we lie on our backs or choose any other position in the water in which we can rest our muscles and relax. We give the current the opportunity to take us wherever it wants. I repeat once again it is pointless to fight him. We just float on the water and calm down.
Any rip current will weaken after some time and begin to disappear. As soon as we feel that we are no longer being carried, we begin to actively swim to the right or left along the shore, but not towards it. Otherwise, there is a chance to return to it again. Having sailed 50-100 meters as much as our strength allows, we turn around and swim steadily to the shore or to the rescuers. By remembering and following this algorithm, you will save your life.
Since RIPs are quite a common occurrence, especially on the ocean coast. What to do to avoid getting caught in a rip current (RIP CURRENTS)? Never rush into the sea or ocean anywhere without looking back, with enthusiastic squeals, without immediately inspecting the coastal strip, without paying attention to the prohibitory signs, or without talking with the locals. And it is natural not to allow children of any age there in this way.
Children should not be left unattended even on the beach at the water's edge, as they can easily be washed into the water by a tidal, rather weak wave. A child caught in a RIP is doomed if help does not arrive in time. Know the visual characteristics of a rip flow. They are the same for all RIPs.
- The coastal zone of water is a different color than the rest of the sea or ocean surrounding it. For example, the water in front of you is blue or white, and the surrounding water is turquoise or blue).
- A stream of seething foam heading perpendicular to the shore into the open sea.
- Have you noticed how debris, bubbles or foam move not towards the shore, but away from it into the open sea.
- You noticed that a gap has formed in the coastal wave. That is, the wave suddenly breaks off, then there is a break, and then the same wave continues again.
These signs must be remembered, but most RIPs do not manifest themselves in any way or are noticeable only to professionals. And you will only notice it when you get there. But now this shouldn't scare you. You know what to do!
For myself personally, I made the following conclusions. The sea, and especially the ocean, cannot be taken lightly. Never go into the water alone if you do not know how to swim, do not swim where there are signs and be careful in the water. Always monitor the wind, current direction and speed, and changes in wave patterns.
Since it is dangerous not only rip current. Wind blowing from the shore is also dangerous. If it is strong and stable enough, it can cause the surface 20 cm of water to move into the open sea. If you are swimming in a bay or lagoon, then this phenomenon it won’t touch you, but if you swim outside into the open sea, the water itself will carry you further and further from the shore.
It is basically impossible to fight in such a situation; all that remains is to wait for the wind to subside or change. But during this time you may find yourself far from the shore. By the way, this is exactly how mattresses with careless vacationers are carried away into the open sea for several kilometers.
There is another rather rare danger associated with rip currents. When 2 rip currents meet together, they can form what is called a "washing machine". This is when a foaming, seething stream pulls you into the depths, since it is directed exactly there.
Only the right decision if caught in a washing machine, climb to the surface, clinging to the steep coastline. This is a case where rocks can save lives. This type of flow is formed near a steep coastline, where it immediately begins great depth. The most a clear example is Sharm el-Sheikh. The corals form just such a shore there. But I have no information about the deaths of tourists in a washing machine in Sharm el-Sheikh.
This article is not intended to scare you and force you to swim your entire future life in pools. Just take this information into account, and even remember some of it, and God forbid that you never need it. And in conclusion, I want to say that the ocean does not tolerate disdain. Never overestimate your capabilities. Good luck!
Below is the story of those who know first-hand what RIP is. Information kindly provided by a site visitor.
On December 27, 2012, mother and daughter showed me photographs taken within half a minute at noon on December 25, 2012:
Photo No. 1: The girl is standing in ankle-deep water! Posing. Mom takes a photo without lifting her hand from the button.
No. 2 and 3. The girl is knee-deep in water and ankle-deep in sand. The waves are half a meter. Low tide.
No. 4. The girl fell due to an incoming meter-long wave mixed with a reverse “ebb” wave so strong that even sand was pulled into the ocean.
Photo No. 5. The wave pulled the Girl one or two meters away, only her head is visible. The Girl screams “HELP!”
(it’s not deep yet, if you stand up it will be up to your waist, but you can’t stand up... but it continues to pull you deeper)
Only then does the Mother realize that the Daughter is not frolicking in the waves.
She sees that a new one and a half meter wave is approaching and clearly understands: “if this wave covers her child, she will no longer see him.” The Mother rushes after the Daughter, pulls her out of the sand, they walk a couple of meters, fall, another young woman runs up from the shore, grabs the Girl’s other hand, another meter... the wave covers them with the remains of foam...
People are already rushing along the shore, only one rescuer missing! equipment, yelling...
The rescuer swears terribly (it’s good that “in his own language”) and points at the red flag.
Violators apologize. They don't know what Rip Current is. And perhaps they would never have known if we had not sat next to each other. How I didn’t know what could be carried away from “ankle-deep” (I was dragged “waist-deep”)
Many people who swim well or stay afloat well do not understand how they can drown close to the shore. When they hear news reports during the holiday season about tourists "died near the shore", they think that the victims either did not know how to swim or were intoxicated. But they are wrong. What then is the reason?
It's about about a very dangerous but little-known phenomenon - rip currents, which are often also called “rip currents”. Rip currents exist in all corners of the planet and in Gulf of Mexico, and on the Black Sea, and on the island of Bali. These insidious rips may not be dealt with not only by ordinary people, but also first-class swimmers who do not know how to behave in this situation.
Everything happens unexpectedly: you swam from the shore, and then turned back, but nothing works out... You swim with all your might, but you remain in one place or even move further away. All attempts are unsuccessful, your strength is running out and you are close to panic...
To begin with, it is important to understand the principle of rip operation. This is a type of marine and ocean currents, directed at right angles to the shore and formed during the process of flow of rising water flowing towards the sea.
The most dangerous are rip currents in shallow seas with gently sloping bank, which is framed by sandbanks, spits and islets (Sea of Azov, etc.). In these places, during low tide, sand spits prevent the return of the mass of water to the sea. The water pressure on the narrow strait connecting the sea with the estuary increases many times over. As a result, a fast flow is formed, through which water moves at a speed of 2.5-3.0 m/s.
These “corridors” appear in different places near the coast during high tides. The waves roll in and bring a mass of water, and then with at different speeds go into the sea or ocean, forming a reverse current. This is observed in areas where the tides frequently ebb and flow.
In the attached photo with a red arrow, the flows of boiling water are not so visible, but the current itself and the people caught in it are clearly visible.
Most often, the width of the rip is 2-3 m, and the current speed is 4-5 km/h, which is not dangerous.
But periodically there are “drafts” up to 50 m wide, up to 200-400 m long and with a speed of up to 15 km/h! This happens much less often. But it happens!
How can you learn to distinguish places where there are rips so as not to fall into them? First of all Pay attention to the following characteristic signs:
The visible channel of rushing water is perpendicular to the shore;
- IN coastal zone there are areas with a different shade of water: for example, everything around is light blue or greenish, and some area is white. Areas with foam moving seaweed and bubbles that move from the shore to the open sea;
- There is a 5-10 meter gap in the continuous strip of tidal waves;
If you notice any of the above, never swim in this area. But the danger is that 80% of sudden rips do not manifest themselves outwardly. It is in their “tenacious clutches” that most tourists fall. Only professional rescuers can identify such areas.
It is important to remember that rip currents often occur near the shore, so they can even pull in people standing in waist-deep or chest-deep water. And if swimmers have a great chance of survival, then people who cannot swim have a critically low chance of survival. Therefore, do not swim alone and do not enter places that seem suspicious to you.
Give preference to busy beaches where lifeguards are on duty.
- And always pay attention to red flags and signs on the beach in areas where swimming is strictly prohibited. This is not a joke!
And the most important point! How should those caught in such a current behave?
Rules of conduct in rip currents
1. Overcome panic! Pull yourself together, because people, knowledgeable about the rules behavior in rip, are saved in 99% of cases.
2. Save your strength! There is no need to row with all your might against the current, losing energy reserves. You need to swim not to the shore, but to the side, parallel to the beach. If the rip is narrow (up to 5 m), you will get out of it very quickly.
3. Analyze! If you row according to the rules - to the side, but cannot get out, then the rip is wide (from 20 m or more). Then immediately stop wasting energy and panicking! The reverse flow is usually short-lived and will stop after 3-4 minutes. After this, swim 50-100 m to the side, and only then return to the shore with breaks.
The following facts will help you avoid panic:
Rip won't drag you down. Most often, rip currents are short and the upper layer of water moves at high speed, which supports floating objects.
The rip is not particularly wide. Its width does not exceed 50 m. And in most cases it is only 10-20 m. As a result, after swimming literally 20-30 m along the shore, you will notice that you have swam out of the rip.
Rip length is limited. The current weakens quite quickly, the “dragon” loses its strength where the waves reach their peak and begin to break. In surfer slang this place is called “line up”. This is where all the surfers gather, preparing to conquer the incoming waves. Usually the “line up” is located no further than 100 m from the shore.
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