Indian Ocean garbage patch

<p>The Indian Ocean garbage patch, discovered in 2010, is a <a href="/facts/Garbage_patch/IT9BY8Ag">marine garbage patch</a>, a <a href="/facts/Ocean_gyre/2luvr3Cp">gyre</a> of <a href="/facts/Marine_litter/aLcy8UJc">marine litter</a>, suspended in the upper <a href="/facts/Water_column/RNQbAVJj">water column</a> of the central <a href="/facts/Indian_Ocean/Kv0crwKG">Indian Ocean</a>, specifically the <a href="/facts/Indian_Ocean_Gyre/TC6lBINJ">Indian Ocean Gyre</a>, one of the five major oceanic <a href="/facts/Gyre/2luvr3Cp">gyres</a>. The patch does not appear as a continuous debris field. As with other patches in each of the five oceanic gyres, the plastics in it break down to ever smaller particles, and to constituent <a href="/facts/Polymer/eF32E50K">polymers</a>. As with the other patches, the field constitutes an elevated level of <a href="/facts/Pelagic/D6heJr5f">pelagic</a> plastics, <a href="/facts/Chemical_sludge/HPS1Akbo">chemical sludge</a>, and other <a href="/facts/Debris/V10YQYym">debris</a>; primarily particles that are invisible to the naked eye. The concentration of particle debris has been estimated to be approximately  10,000 particles per square kilometer.
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Indian Ocean garbage patch open-in-new

Indian Ocean garbage patch