A DISASTER BEGETS A DISASTER

Hazard warning for yachts in the Pacific – debris from Japan’s tsunami

‘Tsunami debris discovered here first’ .

Cruising sailors crossing the Pacific Ocean, particularly the north Pacific, should be aware that floating debris from the devastating tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 is a hazard. The good news is that predictions of the drift are proving accurate. Debris from the devastating tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 has turned up exactly where scientists predicted it would after months of floating across the Pacific Ocean, as identified by a Russian ship in the area.

Simulation of spread of debris from Japan’s tsunami – .. .

Finding and confirming where the debris ended up gives them a better idea of where it’s headed next, which can be important, not only to sensitive areas, but to cruising sailors in the pathway of the debris.

The magnitude 9.0 quake and ensuing tsunami that struck off the coast of Tohoku in Japanwas so powerful that it broke off huge icebergs thousands of miles away in the Antarctic, locally altered Earth’s gravity field, and washed millions of tons of debris into the Pacific.

Tsunami debris as sighted by a US helicopter – black spots are car tyres – .. .

Scientists at the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have been trying to track the trajectory of this debris, which can threaten small ships and coastlines. The new sightings should help the scientists predict when the debris, which ranges from pieces of fishing vessels to TV sets, will arrive at sensitive locations, such as marine reserves.

Scientists estimate the debris will wash up on the Hawaii Islands in two years and the U.S. West Coast in three.

For nearly half a year, senior researcher Nikolai Maximenko and computer programmer Jan Hafner had only their state-of-the-art — but still untested — computer model of ocean currents to speculate where the tsunami debris might end up. The new sightings are backing up the model, showing debris in places where the model predicted.

Debris found by Russian ship – .. .

Warned by maps of the scientists’ model, a Russian ship, the STS Pallada, found an array of unmistakable tsunami debris on its homeward voyage from Honolulu to Vladivostok.

Soon after passing Midway Islands, crew members aboard the Pallada spotted a surprising number of floating items.

‘On September 22, in position 31 [degrees] 42,21 N and 174 [degrees] 45,21 E, we picked up on board the Japanese fishing boat. Radioactivity level — normal, we’ve measured it with the Geiger counter,’ wrote Natalia Borodina, information and education mate of the Pallada.

‘At the approaches to the mentioned position (maybe 10 – 15 minutes before) we also sighted a TV set, fridge and a couple of other home appliances.’

Tsunami debris being hoisted onto ship – .. .

Later, on Sept. 27, she wrote: ‘We keep sighting every day things like wooden boards, plastic bottles, buoys from fishing nets (small and big ones), an object resembling wash basin, drums, boots, other wastes. All these objects are floating by the ship.’

On Oct. 8, the Pallada entered the port of Vladivostok and Borodina was able to send pictures.

The most remarkable piece of debris is of a small fishing vessel about 20 feet (6 meters)long, which they were able to hoist up onto the Pallada. The markings on the wheelhouse of the boat show its homeport to be in the Fukushima Prefecture, the area hardest hit by the massive tsunami.

With the exact locations of some of the now widely scattered debris, the scientists can make more accurate projections about when the debris might arrive at the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

The first landfall on Midway Islands is anticipated this winter. What misses Midway will continue toward the main Hawaiian Islands, where it is expected to hit in two years, and then on to the West Coast of North America in three years.

TSUNAMI SEQUEL

We seem to have one catastrophe after another. Mother earth seems to be very angry. Despite the tornados,the floods, the story of the tsunami is not over. A debris field is heading to the West coast. I have been wondering when this story would be picked up again. The article below discusses the debris field clearly. The threat of radiation in the contaminated water from the cooling systems of the nuclear plants destroyed by the earthquake that was dumped into the ocean will make it’s way to the west coast by the same currents carrying the debris.

It is not my intention to cause panic. This radiation will likely be very diluted. Sea life will also be effected.

If ever we needed an example of how connected we are in the world.

Cars, whole houses and even severed feet in shoes: The vast field of debris from Japan earthquake and tsunami that’s floating towards U.S. West Coast

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:53 AM on 8th April 2011
A vast field of debris, swept out to sea following the Japan earthquake and tsunami, is floating towards the U.S. West Coast, it has emerged.

More than 200,000 buildings were washed out by the enormous waves that followed the 9.0 quake on March 11.

There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers, capsized ships and even whole houses bobbing around in open water.

Scroll down for video

Adrift: A whole house bobs in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan. An enormous field of debris was swept out to sea following the earthquake and tsunami

But even more grisly are the predictions of U.S. oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who is expecting human feet, still in their shoes, to wash up on the West Coast within three years.

‘I’m expecting parts of houses, whole boats and feet in sneakers to wash up,’ Mr Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has spent decades tracking flotsam, told MailOnline.

Several thousand bodies were washed out to sea following the disaster and while most of the limbs will come apart and break down in the water, feet encased in shoes will float, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

‘I’m expecting the unexpected,’ he added.

Journey: A graphic depicts the predicted location of the Japan debris field as it swirls towards the U.S. West Coast. Scientists predict the first bits of debris will wash up in a year's time

Journey: This graphic depicts the predicted location of the Japan debris field as it swirls towards the U.S. West Coast. Scientists predict the first bits of rubbish will wash up in a year’s time

In three years’ time the debris field will have reached the U.S. West Coast and will then turn toward Hawaii and back again toward Asia, circulating in what is known as the North Pacific gyre

Members of the U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet, who spotted the extraordinary floating rubbish, say they have never seen anything like it and are warning the debris now poses a threat to shipping traffic.

‘It’s very challenging to move through these to consider these boats run on propellers and that these fishing nets or other debris can be dangerous to the vessels that are actually trying to do the work,’ Ensign Vernon Dennis told ABC News.

‘So getting through some of these obstacles doesn’t make much sense if you are going to actually cause more debris by having your own vessel become stuck in one of these waterways.’

Debris soup: There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers, capsized ships and even whole houses bobbing around in open water off the coast of Japan

Debris soup: There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers and capsized ships bobbing around in open water off the coast of Japan

Vast: An aerial view of debris off the coast of Japan shows massive amounts of timber, tyres and parts of houses. The U.S. Navy said they had never seen anything like it

Vast: An aerial view of the debris shows massive amounts of timber, tyres and parts of houses. The U.S. Navy said they had never seen anything like it and warn it now poses a threat to shipping traffic

Predictions: Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle-based oceanographer, said he expected bits of houses, whole boats and even feet still in sneakers, to wash up on the U.S. West Coast

Scientists say the first bits of debris from Japan are due to reach the West Coast in a year’s time after being carried by currents toward Washington, Oregon and California.

They will then turn toward Hawaii and back again toward Asia, circulating in what is known as the North Pacific Gyre, said Mr Ebbesmeyer,

Mr Ebbesmeyer, who has traced Nike sneakers, plastic bath toys and hockey gloves accidentally spilled from Asia cargo ships, is now tracking the massive debris field moving across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.

He relies heavily on a network of thousands of beachcombers to report the location and details of their finds.

‘If you put a major city through a trash grinder and sprinkle it on the water, that’s what you’re dealing with,’ he said.

Some of the debris to hit the West Coast may be radioactive following the devastation at Japanese nuclear power plants, according to James Hevezi, chair of the American College of Radiology Commission on Medical Physics.

‘But it would be very low risk,’ Hevezi said. ‘The amount that would be on the stuff by the time it reached the West Coast would be minimal.’

Only a small portion of that debris will wash ashore, and how fast it gets there and where it lands depends on buoyancy, material and other factors.

Fishing vessels or items that poke out of the water and are more likely influenced by wind may show up in a year, while items like lumber pieces, survey stakes and household items may take two to three years, he said.

Strong: The graphic shows the currents in the Pacific Ocean that will push the debris around from Japan to the U.S. West Coast and back again

Strong force: The graphic shows the currents in the Pacific Ocean that will push the debris around from Japan to the U.S. West Coast and then back again

GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

Old flip flops, plastic toys, bags, children’s pacifiers, toothbrushes, tons of plastic bottles and even whole yachts are just some of the rubbish floating in the so-called ‘great pacific garbage patch’.

The debris was trapped by the rotational currents of the North Pacific Gyre, which draws it from across the North Pacific Ocean, including coastal waters off North America and Japan.

It ends up bobbing about like a rubbish soup miles off the coast of California.

It is difficult to say just how big the area of ocean trash is, but some reports say it is roughly three times the size of Texas.

Oceanographer and race captain Charles J. Moore, discovered the GPGP on sailing through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpac sailing race in 1997.

He was confronted, he said, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic.

U.S. oceanographer, Curt Ebbesmeyer, believes the debris has building up over 50 to 100 years and traced one piece of plastic he found back 60 years.

He has even heard reports of several dozen abandoned yachts floating in the area.

They get into trouble in bad weather, the owner is rescued but the yacht ends up being swept out to sea, never to be recovered, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

There is also a North Atlantic and Indian Ocean garbage patch.

If the items aren’t blown ashore by winds or get caught up in another oceanic gyre, they’ll continue to drift in the North Pacific loop and complete the circle in about six years, Ebbesmeyer said.

‘The material that is actually blown in will be a fraction’ of the tsunami debris, said Curt Peterson, a coastal oceanographer and professor of in the geology department at Portland State University in Oregon.

‘Some will break up in transit. A lot of it will miss our coast. Some will split up and head up to Gulf of Alaska and (British Columbia).’

‘All this debris will find a way to reach the West Coast or stop in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,’ a swirling mass of concentrated marine litter in the Pacific Ocean, said Luca Centurioni, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.

Much of the debris will be plastic, which doesn’t completely break down. That raises concerns about marine pollution and the potential harm to marine life.

But the amount of tsunami debris, while massive, still pales in comparison to the litter that is dumped into oceans on a regular basis, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

He is also concerned for the welfare of some hundred thousand juvenile sea turtles, which are born in Japan and must make the journey across the Pacific to California.

They usually follow the path of North Pacific Gyre but swim around the north side of the garbage patch, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

But now the turtles face a sea of debris from Japan on their journey.

Meanwhile Japan’s meteorological agency says it has now lifted a tsunami warning for the north-eastern coast after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck offshore.

The quake hit about 11.30 pm local time. It has rattled nerves nearly a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened the same area of coastline.

TSUNAMI

TSUNAMI, a word that would strike fear in the heart of any person. Prayers for everyone and anyone in it’s path. Due to hit hawaii at 8:46am eastern time , followed by the west coast 11:45 am east coast time of the United States. This wave was generated by an earthquake off the coast of Japan with a force of 8.9. The Tsunami has already struck and wreaked havoc there. Click here for NOAA information.

Each time something like this happens it puts our daily annoyances in perspective.