An
estimated 5 tons to 20 tons of debris sucked into the ocean during
Japan’s massive tsunami is due to hit U.S. shores in the next two to
three years. Nikolai Maximenko, a researcher at the International
Pacific Research Center in Hawaii, developed a model of how the tsunami
debris is likely to move across the ocean. He based his model on the
movements of thousands of buoys placed in the ocean over 30 years to
study the current. According to Maximenko’s calculations, the debris
from the tsunami will wash up at Midway Attol – an island midway between
Japan and Hawaii – this winter. It will start washing up on Hawaiian
shores in the winter or spring of 2013. And in the beginning of 2014 it
will hit the West Coast, mostly Oregon and Washington. Russian ship STS
Pallada spotted some of the debris in the Pacific Ocean on its way from
Honolulu to Vladivostok in Russia. It was some 2,000 miles from the
original tsunami site and included pieces of houses and various items
from shoes to televisions to home appliances. The tsunami was caused by a
9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan. The March 11th earthquake killed
20,000 people and destroyed the Fukushima nuclear plant.
