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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)
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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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