Somewhere out in the Pacific between Hawaii and the West Coast, massive amounts of widely scattered debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami are slowly drifting toward the U.S., carrying with it tons of potentially toxic junk and non-native creatures clinging alongside.
The result of a devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck off the coast of northern Japan in March 2011, the debris was unleashed when the tsunami washed an estimated 5 million tons of it – including everything from boats and household appliances to wood planks and soccer balls – into the ocean.
While about 70 percent of it floated to the bottom of the ocean just off Japan's coast, the remainder (about 1.5 million tons) drifted out into the Pacific and pieces of it have been spotted washing up along the U.S. coastline ever since, everywhere from the islands along the Gulf of Alaska to San Diego, Calif .... http://www.weather.com
