The author wrote a really short code snippet that demonstrates the problem: function f() { var some = []; while(some.length < 1e6) { some.push(

The author wrote a really short code snippet that demonstrates the problem: function f() { var some = []; while(some.length < 1e6) { some.push(some.length); } function g() { some; } //removing this fixes a massive memory leak return function() {}; //or removing this } If you keep a reference to the results of calling this function, it will keep a reference to the "some" variable, even though it is not needed. He created a page that demonstrates the problem here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/chromebugs/memory.html https://s3.amazonaws.com/chromebugs/memory.html