The Circumpolar Currents

According to Kircher's theory of currents, the sea wells up at the South Pole and forms a great whirlpool at the North. Mariners have never been able to reach the South because of the strong adverse currents that flow in all directions, and certain destruction awaits anyone who approaches the Northern vortex.

Joscely N. Godwin, Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Knowledge. Thames and Hudson, 1979. p. 88