It's actually in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. However, it is not just one large patch of trash. According to the Mother Nature Network, it is a "galaxy" of garbage. The garbage is collected in one of Earth's largest ocean currents, the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. This gyre is formed by the warm waters near Hawaii coming up and clashing with the cool waters near California, and then coming back down by the cold waters near Japan and clashing with the warm waters near Hawaii. It is unknown how large the patch would be if all the garbage was together, but estimates range from the size of Texas to the size of a continent.
The patch is divided into two sections: the Western patch and the Eastern patch. The Eastern garbage patch lies between California and Hawaii, while the Western patch is in between Japan and Hawaii. Both sections of the patch are connected by the Subtropical Convergence Zone, which is a 6,000 mile-long ocean current. Trash also collects in the Subtropical Convergence Zone, almost connecting the West and East patches.
Most of the garbage is plastic, which is not biodegradable. Because plastic is not biodegradable, the patch can only grow and kill more aquatic life. Plastic only photodegrades, which is a process that fragments the item of plastic but does not break it down into simpler compounds. Because of this, plastic will never disappear, or if it does, it will take hundreds of years. In the meantime, ocean life gets tangled in plastic or eats it, which destroys the bodies of the creatures that eat it.
Many people do not know about this patch or realize the effects it has on the environment. It is evident that this is a problem, but it should be better known how dangerous plastic is to the environment.
sources: howstuffworks.com, mmn.com
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