It is a floating, oceanic graveyard of plastic junks roughly three times the size of France, discovered by sailor Charles J. Moore in 1997.

It is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.

Also known as the Pacific trash vortex, it spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California.

The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap.

Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70 percent of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean.