150,000 SQ.KM of Pacific with Fukushima nuclear material - ‘Remarkable’ amount released in ocean

[FBaggins]

73. Right! What else could it POSSIBLY be???

Fluid dynamics is a fascinating subject... you should look in to it some time.

That area off Japan is where the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents collide. The Oyashio current brings cold (but nutrient rich) water down from the Arctic and the Kuroshio current brings warm waters up from around the Philippines and Taiwan. Their mixing is why sea life off of Japan is so much more abundant than most of the rest of the world (and has thus impacted Japanese culture for centuries).

The two currents intermingle in inconsistent ways... sometimes colliding farther south along the coast, sometimes farther north. Sometimes with warmer currents predominating near the surface, sometimes colder ones. They blend and turn east to form what is called the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE) and are part of what is known as the North Pacific Gyre (where it interrelates with El Niño and La Niña events. Sometimes it's much colder than normal.. sometimes much warmer.

The flow of the Kuroshio current is comparable to the Gulf Stream. We're talking tens of millions of tons of warm water every second. Dozens of times more water flowing than every river in the world combined. Mother Nature is much more powerful than you're giving her credit for.

Hey! Want to have some fun? Why don't you post this NOAA data (clipped down to just the 2001/2002 period) onto YouTube. Add a little mood music and you'll have the UFO nuts proclaiming "BREAKING!!! FUKUSHIMA MELTED DOWN A DECADE EARLIER AND THE GOVERNMENT COVERED IT UP!!!!!!!" within days.




BTW - Having looked a few images from previous cycles, I'll tell you that there's a good chance that if you zoomed in on the coast, you would find that the plume starts miles off the coast, and that the area around Fukushima is actually colder than normal... but it's hidden at the scale you're seeing.