South Pacific garbage patch

Visualization of the flow pattern of ocean pollutants

The South Pacific garbage patch is an area of ocean with increased levels of marine debris and plastic particle pollution, within the ocean's pelagic zone. This area is in the South Pacific Gyre, which itself spans from waters east of Australia to the South American continent, as far north as the Equator, and south until reaching the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.^[1] The degradation of plastics in the ocean also leads to a rise in the level of toxics in the area.^[2] The garbage patch was confirmed in mid-2017, and has been compared to the Great Pacific garbage patch's state in 2007, making the former ten years younger. The South Pacific garbage patch is not visible on satellites, and is not a landmass. Most particles are smaller than a grain of rice.^[3] A researcher said: "This cloud of microplastics extends both vertically and horizontally. It's more like smog than a patch".^[3]

YouTube Encyclopedic

1/3
Views:
37 648
4 242 084
641 910

Transcription

Discovery

Evidence pointing to the existence of a garbage patch in the South Pacific gyre was made in early 2011 and its existence was confirmed in mid-2017. The discovery was made after a research voyage made by the 5 Gyres Institute.^{[citation needed]} The voyage ran from March to April 2011, following a route based on a model of ocean currents developed by Nikolia Maximenko of the University of Hawaii, which predicts floating debris accumulation zones. The expedition started taking samples off the coast of Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile, and began working its way west, collecting new samples every 50 nautical miles, reaching the waters off Easter Island, and eventually Pitcairn Island.^[4]

A second water sampling voyage departing from Long Beach, California on November 2, 2016, lasting six months, was led by Charles J. Moore, and a team of researchers from Algalita Marine Research and Education.^[5] Upon departure the vessel began its journey south along the Baja California peninsula and on to the Galapagos Islands, continuing southwest on to Easter Island. After departing Easter Island the crew then headed eastward to the Juan Fernandez Islands, after which it continued north following the coast of Chile, with stopping points at Antofagasta, Chile, and Arica, Chile, before heading further out to sea for its return journey to Long Beach.^[6]

Composition, concentration and size

During the 5 Gyres expedition, 48 samples were taken from a 2,424 nautical sweep. The researchers found an increase in plastic pollution density, averaging 26,898 particles per square kilometer, but spiking at up to 396,342 particles per square kilometer, peaking near the center of the predicted accumulation zone,^[4] with some estimates as high as one million particles per square kilometer.^[7]

The composition of the garbage patch consists mainly of microbeads, tiny abrasives less than 5 micrometers in size usually found in certain personal hygiene products,^[8] microscopic fibers from washing clothes,^[9] fishing debris from southern hemisphere fishermen,^[10] and microscopic fragments of larger pieces which have been broken down in the ocean.^[9]

The elevated levels of pollutants can be detected over a vast area estimated to be 2.6 million square kilometers (one million square miles), or about 1.5 times the size of Texas,^[3] with the debris found along a nearly 2,500 nautical mile straight line route.^[7]

Effects on marine life and the ocean

References

^ "South Pacific Gyre – Correntes Oceânicas" – via Google Sites.
^ Barry, Carolyn (20 August 2009). "Plastic Breaks Down in Ocean, After All And Fast". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on August 26, 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c Nield, David (25 July 2017). "There's Another Huge Plastic Garbage Patch in The Pacific Ocean". Sciencealert.com. ScienceAlert.
^ ^a ^b Spear, Stefanie (9 August 2016). "New Garbage Patch Discovered in the South Pacific Gyre". EcoWatch.
^ "South Pacific Ocean Gyre Holds Massive Garbage Patch". Inc., Pelmorex Weather Networks. The Weather Network.
^ "2016–2017 South Pacific Expedition". Google Maps, Google.
^ ^a ^b "Scientists Confirm the Existence of Another Ocean Garbage Patch". 19 July 2017.
^ Carr, Ada (27 July 2017). "Newly Discovered Garbage Patch in the South Pacific Is 1.5 Times the Size of Texas, Study Says". Weather.com. The Weather Channel.
^ ^a ^b Pierre-Louis, Kendra (21 July 2017). "Guess How Many Giant Patches of Garbage There Are in the Ocean Now?". Popular Science.
^ "Massive South Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch 'A Dead Place'". Pacific Islands Report. 24 July 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017.

Arctic Ocean	East Greenland North Icelandic Norwegian Transpolar Drift Stream
Atlantic Ocean	Angola Antilles Azores Baffin Island Benguela Brazil Canary Cape Horn Caribbean East Greenland East Iceland Falkland Florida Guinea Gulf Stream Irminger Labrador Lomonosov Loop North Atlantic North Brazil North Equatorial Norwegian Portugal South Atlantic South Equatorial West Greenland West Spitsbergen
Indian Ocean	Agulhas Agulhas Return East Madagascar Equatorial Counter Indian Monsoon Indonesian Throughflow Leeuwin Madagascar Mozambique North Madagascar Somali South Equatorial West Australian
Pacific Ocean	Alaska Aleutian California Cromwell Davidson East Australian East Korea Warm Equatorial Counter Humboldt Indonesian Throughflow Kamchatka Kuroshio Mindanao North Equatorial North Korea Cold North Pacific Oyashio South Equatorial Tasman Front
Southern Ocean	Antarctic Circumpolar Tasman Outflow

Gyres

Major gyres	Indian Ocean Gyre North Atlantic Gyre South Atlantic Gyre North Pacific Gyre South Pacific Gyre
Other gyres	Beaufort Gyre Ross Gyre Weddell Gyre

Environment portal

Oceans portal

Marine pollution

This page was last edited on 14 April 2024, at 18:59

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia