Byline: Associated Press/Audrey McAvoy
HONOLULU (AP) — Refrigerators, TVs and other debris dragged into sea when a massive earthquake hit Japan last March, causing tsunamis as high as 130 feet to crash ashore, could show up in remote atolls north of Hawaii as soon as this winter, with other pieces reaching parts of the West Coast in 2013 and 2014, experts said.
Debris from the tsunami initially formed a thick mass in the ocean of Japan’s northeastern coast. But ocean currents have dispersed the pieces so they’re now estimated to spread out some 3,000 miles halfway across the Pacific.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Feb. 28 the first bits of tsunami debris are estimated to make landfall this winter on small atolls northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. Other pieces are expected to reach the coasts of Oregon, Washington state, Alaska and Canada between March 2013 and March 2014.
Last September, a Russian training ship spotted a refrigerator, a television set and other appliances west of Hawaii. By now, the debris has likely drifted so far apart that only one object can be seen at a time, said Nikolai Maximenko, a University of Hawaii researcher and ocean currents expert.
One million to 2 million tons of debris remain in the ocean, but only 1 to 5 percent of that could reach North American shorelines, Maximenko said.