5 ms·
Tsunami carried a million sea creatures from Japan to US west coast
- Jyaif 9y agoWaves are oscillations, and thus do not move matter over long distances. Am I missing something?
- andresgottlieb 9y agoYou're right, but the tsunami released a lot of debris to the sea near Japan, and the sea creatures where slowly transported for thousands of miles, on that debris: "Between June 2012 and February this year 289 Japanese species attached to 600 pieces of debris washed up on beaches in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii, as well as in the Canadian province of British Columbia, according to the study."
- Jyaif 9y agoMaybe I should RTFA instead of the (misleading) headline :-)
- craftyguy 9y agoIt's not the waves that move matter, it's the ocean currents and winds (for objects buoyant enough to act like sails).
- bognition 9y agoThis is really interesting because many of these new species will be considered invasive species, however, because they arrived by natural means should the invasion be stopped?
- craftyguy 9y agoSince they came over almost entirely an manmade debris that had been 'freed' by the tsunami, I think it can be argued that this was not entirely natural. If Japan was unpopulated, we'd get a few logs that would made the journey, not complete manmade structures which could house many different species at once.
- Spakman 9y agoI really have difficultly seeing how this could be considered anything other than natural. We, our actions and our impacts on the rest of the environment are, after all, born of the very same nature.
- craftyguy 9y agoWell, by that loose definition, there is absolutely nothing that is not 'natural.'
- Spakman 9y agoYeah, I agree with that!
- popcorncolonel 9y ago"Natural" is defined as: existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by humankind. So by definition, there are things that are natural, such as other galaxies, and all things a million years ago.
- aorloff 9y agoThings that are natural : all galaxies, including ours.