Henderson Island has a huge plastic problem

Today’s Image of the Day comes thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at Henderson Island in the South Pacific Ocean.

Henderson Island is a small, uninhabited tropical island with lush vegetation and white sand beaches. But because it is located near the center of an ocean gyre, its beaches collect trash from currents originating in the Americas.

According to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the island has the highest density of plastic waste in the world.

This image was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on board NASA’s Terra satellite.

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: NASA Earth Observatory