Understanding Earth: Running Shoes as Drift Meters

Understanding Earth: Running Shoes as Drift Meters- Just Do It Unit 5- The Global Ocean: Box 14.1. In this article I learned that any floating object can operate as a drift meter as long as it is known where the object submitted the water and where it was reclaimed. If these times are recognized, the route of the object can then be concluded assisting the determination of the speed and movement of currents. Numerous ships have lost cargo at sea, but the incidents releasing Nike shoes and bathtub toys helped progress the understanding of surface circulation in the North Pacific the most efficiently. In May 1990 the container vessel traveling from Korea to Washington confronted a severe Pacific storm losing 21 deck containers overboard. Five containers contained Nike athletic shoes which floated and were carried east by the North Pacific Current. In January 1992 an additional cargo ship lost 12 containers during a storm including one that held 29,000 packages of small flamboyant bathtub toys. Within 24 hours the glue of the plastic bags deteriorated releasing over 100,000 floating toys. In both cases of loads being released into the ocean, cargo was found many months later. Thousands of Nike shoes were found along the beaches of Alaska, Canada, Washington, and Oregon as long as 6 months after the occurrence, and bathtub toys began to float to shore in southeast Alaska as long as 10 months after. Since these events, oceanographers have unceasingly studied and reviewed ocean currents by tracing other floating objects spilled from cargo ships further refining older methods such as “drift bottles”. In my opinion this article was very interesting to read because its refers to a modern topic and I agree with the newer methods that are not only more efficient but also resourceful and effective since ocean spills are bound to happen.