Environment

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Today’s Geo Quiz might have a bit of a smell. Far off the coast of North America there’s a huge spot where the Pacific Ocean swirls around and around.

It’s sort of like a giant whirlpool, driven in part by trade winds to the south and the jet stream to the north. This huge vortex in the Pacific isn’t new. But it’s gained a troubling feature — trash.

In particular, plastic trash from North America and East Asia. Researchers have been studying what’s called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” since its discovery more than a decade ago.

We’ll talk with one of those researchers in about a minute. But first tell we want to know the name of the Pacific Ocean phenomenon that’s at the center of the story.

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An ocean vortex figured in today’s Geo Quiz. It’s a huge area in the Pacific and it’s been accumulating massive amounts of trash.

Researchers have been paying close attention.

Among the latest to visit the area is a team from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The team’s on board the research vessel “New Horizon.” That’s where we reached graduate student Miriam Goldstein by satellite phone:

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More information:
http://seaplexscience.com/
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
http://www.algalita.org

View a video of the Garbage Patch