Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Somebody on the Dennis Miller radio show mentioned something about a giant floating garbage dump in the Atlantic which has collected due to ocean currents. I had to Wiki that one.

Turns out its true; they call it the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," and it's estimated to be twice the size of Texas. If I understand correctly, it is largely bits of plastic, and has gradually formed because of ocean gyres, which are large scale vortexes created by wind and current patterns. Folks that study this estimate that 80% of it is from land-based rubbish, and 20% from ships.

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