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- Also referred to as: Eastern Garbage Patch, Pacific Trash Vortex, the Plastic Soup
- Location: About 1,000 miles west of California and 1,000 miles north of HawaiiSF Gate: Feds Want to Survey, Possibly Clean Up Vast Garbage Pit... (October 30, 2007)
- In 2001, the mass of plastic particles in the area exceeded zooplankton (animal life) by a ratio of 6: 1Natural History Magazine: Trashed (November 2003)
- Occasionally currents will shift, releasing large amounts of trash that are deposited on land
- Comprised mainly of non-biodegradable plasticsSF Gate: Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling... (October 19, 2007)
- Although some of the garbage comes from ships and oil rigs, the vast majority of trash originates on landThe Independent: The World's Rubbish Dump... (February 5, 2008)
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The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch is located in an area of the Pacific called the North Pacific Gyre, at which four major ocean currents meet and form a giant whirlpool. Most of the trash that ends up in the Pacific Ocean gets caught in the whirlpool and has collected into a mass approximately twice the size of Texas.SF Gate: Feds Want to Survey, Possibly Clean Up Vast Garbage Pit... (October 30, 2007)
The North Pacific Gyre
The peculiarities of this location arise from the fact that four prevailing ocean currents--the North Pacific Current to the north, the California Current to the east, the North Equatorial Current to the south, and the Kuroshio Current to the west--meet in the North Pacific Gyre. The collision of these currents creates a clockwise circular vortex that draws waste material in, and once in, traps it.Natural History Magazine: Trashed (November 2003)
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