Usa To Get Tsunami Rubbish
The rubbish from the Japanese tsunami has formed into massive floating islands of rubbish, creating a shipping hazard and causing havoc to shipping lanes of the Pacific Ocean. Cars, entire houses, bodies, boats and tractors are included in the floating debris.
According to the American Navy's 7th Fleet, the biggest "island" of rubbish covers 60 nautical miles (69 miles) in length and stretches over an area of over 2.2 million square feet. The navy is closely monitoring the floating rubbish.
Experts believe that the floating islands could take up to 2years to reach the beaches of Hawaii and three years to cover the 8,800 kms to the West Coast of the United States.
The United States navy is working with Japanese civilian construction companies in an effort to retrieve some of the garbage.
A certain amount of Japan's tsunami garbage will stop off at the planet's biggest ocean rubbish dump, in the North Pacific Gyre, a natural collection area at the centre of a number of currents. The meteorological phenomenon, created through continuous high pressure systems and weak currents, produces little wind, while the ocean slows down to a crawl.
In 2008, the ocean rubbish tip was estimated to contain approximately a hundred million tons of toxic flotsam, covering an area twice the size of the United States. In 1997 a solo sailor discovered the rubbish, though it was first talked about in 1988, in a paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Despite the density and size of the garbage dump, it is not able to be seen on satellite photography, because it is primarily comprised of suspended particles in the upper water column, just beneath the ocean's surface.
An oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, Curtis Ebbesmeyer, has followed the build-up of plastics in the ocean for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash. When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic".
It comprises everything from footballs and lego blocks, kayaks to carrier bags, syringes and cigarette lighters. It has been thrown off ships and oil platforms and comes also from the land. After all the sea is 'downhill from everywhere and any plastic made in the past 50 years, that found its way into the sea, is still out there somewhere.
According to the American Navy's 7th Fleet, the biggest "island" of rubbish covers 60 nautical miles (69 miles) in length and stretches over an area of over 2.2 million square feet. The navy is closely monitoring the floating rubbish.
Experts believe that the floating islands could take up to 2years to reach the beaches of Hawaii and three years to cover the 8,800 kms to the West Coast of the United States.
The United States navy is working with Japanese civilian construction companies in an effort to retrieve some of the garbage.
A certain amount of Japan's tsunami garbage will stop off at the planet's biggest ocean rubbish dump, in the North Pacific Gyre, a natural collection area at the centre of a number of currents. The meteorological phenomenon, created through continuous high pressure systems and weak currents, produces little wind, while the ocean slows down to a crawl.
In 2008, the ocean rubbish tip was estimated to contain approximately a hundred million tons of toxic flotsam, covering an area twice the size of the United States. In 1997 a solo sailor discovered the rubbish, though it was first talked about in 1988, in a paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Despite the density and size of the garbage dump, it is not able to be seen on satellite photography, because it is primarily comprised of suspended particles in the upper water column, just beneath the ocean's surface.
An oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, Curtis Ebbesmeyer, has followed the build-up of plastics in the ocean for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash. When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic".
It comprises everything from footballs and lego blocks, kayaks to carrier bags, syringes and cigarette lighters. It has been thrown off ships and oil platforms and comes also from the land. After all the sea is 'downhill from everywhere and any plastic made in the past 50 years, that found its way into the sea, is still out there somewhere.
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