pacific ocean

Updated on Sept. 30:

A tsunami spawned by Tuesday's earthquake, which struck in the Pacific Ocean between American Samoa and Samoa, swept across the islands on Tuesday, local authorities reported Wednesday. Authorities in the region are reporting that the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has risen to at least 111 people, including 22 people in American Samoa, 82 people in Samoa and seven in Tonga, according to a report by CNN.

Out in the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean, a giant floating mess of plastic debris is drifting and bobbing among the waves. Scientists call this expanse of litter, which stretches for hundreds of kilometers across open sea, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But before last summer, there was little information about how large the patch really is, what types of debris are out there and what kind of impact it is having on ocean life.