日本311海嘯垃圾十月會到達北美洲西岸

Recently the Mainichi News on-line reported the following:

震災がれき:１０月ごろ北米西海岸へ…１５０万トン分

毎日新聞　2012年04月06日　23時51分

　環境省は６日、東日本大震災の津波で海に流れたがれきなどが、今年１０月ごろに北米大陸の西海岸沿岸域に到達する可能性があることを明らかにした。国際法上はがれきなどの回収義務はないが、政府は米国やカナダなどと協議し、対応を検討する。

　同省によると、大震災の津波によって海洋に流されたがれきなどは約５００万トン。ほとんどは海底に沈んだが、約１５０万トンが漂流物となった。大部分（推計１３３万トン）は家屋が壊れたものや船などと考えられる。

　漂流のシミュレーションは、宇宙航空研究開発機構（ＪＡＸＡ）の陸域観測技術衛星「だいち」の画像を解析して得た漂流物の初期分布から、海流や風などを考慮し移動速度を算出して行った。

(試譯文)
On the 6th (April) The Ministry of Environment showed clearly that the rubble etc. which flowed into the sea because of the tsunami of the East Japan great earthquake might arrive at the west coast of the North American Continent around October this year.Although there was no international laws on the duty to recover of rubble etc, the government had talked with the U.S., Canada, etc. and was considering the response.

According to the said ministry, the rubble washed out by the tsunami in the great earthquake into the ocean was about 5 million tons. Although most sank to the seabed, about 1,500,000 tons became flotsam. Most of them (1,330,000 tons estimated) were considered to be broken houses and ships etc.
A drifting simulation was worked out based on analysing the initial distribution of the flotsam, using the pictures from the Land Observing Satellite "Daichi" of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and computing the moving speed in consideration of the ocean current and the wind, etc.

That means the surface ocean current in the North Pacific is constantly moving from Asia eastwards towards North America and can finish a trip in about 18 months.