The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The swirling mass of plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean, known by a handful of names -- the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, North Pacific Gyre, Trash Vortex, and Plastic Graveyard among them -- has been gaining notoriety lately, for all the wrong reasons. It's ballooned to twice the size of the continental U.S., causing a variety of problems, but what does it really look like out there? This satellite photo is just the beginning; get up close and personal with the patch in the rest of the slideshow.

The swirling mass of plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean, known by a handful of names -- the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, North Pacific Gyre, Trash Vortex, and Plastic Graveyard among them -- has been gaining notoriety lately, for all the wrong reasons.

It's ballooned to twice the size of the continental U.S., causing a variety of problems, but what does it really look like out there?

This picture shows 'The Mother of All Tangles' a 200-pound tangle of rope and rubbish.

Related article's & video; 

• Pacific Ocean Contains 100 Million Tons of Garbage
• Voyage confirms plastic pollution.
• Voyage to Study Plastic Island
• A water sample from the great pacific garbage patch
• North Sea Plastic Rubbish / Garbage

Comments

[vineeta Greenwood]

This is really shocking!