What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch explanation for kids?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a big patch of garbage and debris in the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is caught in the water currents. It formed because currents near the center of the Northern Pacific Ocean move around in a kind of circle, which catches and holds floating pieces of plastic.

What are 3 facts about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

01The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered in 1997. 02It is composed of an estimated 3.6 trillion pieces of plastic. 03The GPGP continues to expand. 04The GPGP estimated covers a surface area of 1.6 million sq km or twice the size of Texas.

What are the 5 major garbage patches?

There are five gyres to be exact—the North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the North Pacific Gyre, the South Pacific Gyre, and the Indian Ocean Gyre—that have a significant impact on the ocean.

What caused the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

The Garbage Patch is created by the North Pacific Gyre. A Gyre is a system of circulating currents in an ocean, caused by the Coriolis Effect.

How big is the Pacific garbage patch 2020?

1.6 million square kilometers
ESTIMATION OF SIZE The GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France. To formulate this number, the team of scientists behind this research conducted the most elaborate sampling method ever coordinated.

Who is responsible for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

In fact, the top six countries for ocean garbage are China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Thailand, according to a 2015 study in the journal Science. The United States contributes as much as 242 million pounds of plastic trash to the ocean every year, according to that study.

What are the effects of the Pacific garbage patch?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and plastic pollution generally, is killing marine life. 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are affected every year, as well as many other species. For example, turtles often mistake plastic bags for prey such as jellyfish.

How does the Great Pacific Garbage Patch affect humans?

The impact on humans The toxins from plastics enter the water of rivers, lakes, and streams that we consume each day (Andrews, 2021). In other words, drinking from local water and consuming seafood at times also implies ingesting microplastics.

Who discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

Charles Moore
Charles Moore, who discovered the patch in 1997, continues to raise awareness through his own environmental organization, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

What is the biggest garbage patch in the ocean called?

Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The most famous of these patches is often called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” It is located in the North Pacific Gyre (between Hawaii and California).

Can you see the Pacific garbage patch on Google Earth?

After hearing about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” earlier this year — an area the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean filled with trash — I went looking for it on Google Earth. And never found it. It’s not that the patch doesn’t exist. It’s just that despite being large, it’s not that visible from above.

How to clean up Great Pacific garbage patch?

Cleaning the ocean. The Ocean Cleanup is developing cleanup systems that can clean up the floating plastics caught swirling in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. System 002, our latest system iteration, reached proof of technology on October 20 th, 2021, meaning we can now start the cleanup. Learn more

What is the solution to the Great Pacific garbage patch?

– The US Government has increased funding for cleanup efforts – Government agencies have expanded their cleanup work – The US Government has established a Marine monument on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

What causes the Great Pacific garbage patch?

https://www.theoceancleanup.com/fileadmin/media-archive/Documents/Lebreton2018_SciRep.pdf

What caused the Great Pacific garbage patch?

– “Smart surprise” – Use of supernatural aid – Unheeded warnings