Great Pacific Garbage Patch Growing Quickly

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March 22, 2018

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is growing–and moving.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch bigger

The large concentration of largely plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean is now 600,000 square miles in size–twice the size of Texas. Current estimates are that the Patch weighs 88,000 tons. Nearly half of the plastic in the Patch was fishing nets; other commonly found larger items included ropes and packaging straps. Eight percent was microplastics.

The Garbage Patch, first discovered in 1997, is the resting place of waste from many countries, in Asia, North America, and South America. As much as 20 percent of the plastic is thought to have come from Japan and other Asian nations in the wake of the 2011 Sendai Earthquake.

Scientists also discovered, the Patch is moving, more than they thought it did. It is water-based and so not entirely stationary; but until now, scientists had thought that prevailing winds and ocean currents kept the garbage in a central location.

The Great Patch isn't the only such collection at sea. Scientists have found four other collections of plastic and other trash: one other in the Pacific Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean, and one in the Indian Ocean.

The new study, done by a team of scientists using boats and planes and affiliated with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, can be found in Nature Scientific Reports. The scientists were from Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

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Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2018
David White

Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2019
David White