Dynamics of Ocean Garbage Patches
Laboratory Experiment
Plastic litter floating in the surface waters of the ocean is one of the biggest environmental challenges facing mankind. It can entangle marine animals, they can mistake the plastic materials for food and eat it. Once eaten plastics and the chemicals within them, can enter the food-chain with potentially harmful effects.
We study how ocean currents driven by winds carry and gather together discarded plastics into particular regions of the ocean in this wind-driven ocean gyre experiment.
Here are the Project 2 lab notes describing the experiment, background theory and EsGlobe activities to explore how particles are transported by ocean currents.
