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A huge dock torn from a Japanese port by last year's
tsunami has washed up in the US state of Oregon - 8,050km (5,000 miles)
across the Pacific.
The 20m-long (66ft) concrete dock weighing 165 tonnes was spotted on
Agate beach, south-west of Portland.
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A Japanese consulate official said a commemorative plaque showed it had
come from the fishing port of Misawa.
Radiation checks proved negative, but scientists say invasive species
foreign to the area may have hitched a ride.
A starfish native to Japan was among the marine life still clinging to
the structure, Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation spokesman Chris
Havel was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"This is tsunami debris, not just from Japan, but from the tsunami
itself," Mr Havel said.
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Oregon police have now been deployed to keep people from climbing on the
dock, which was first mistaken by local residents for a barge.
Misawa lost four docks during an earthquake and resulting tsunami on 11
March 2011. Two docks are still missing.
This April, the US Coast Guard used cannon to sink a crewless Japanese
ship that drifted to Alaska after the tsunami.
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A month later, a Japanese owner of a Harley-Davidson motorbike swept
away by the tsunami was amazed to find out that it had been washed up
inside a container on a beach in Canada - about 6,400km away.
Japanese scientists estimate that some 20 million tonnes of debris were
generated by the earthquake and the incoming rush of water.
Most would have stayed on land, and a fair proportion pulled out to sea
would have sunk rapidly. But it is possible a million tonnes of debris
is still afloat.
Nearly 16,000 people were killed by the quake and tsunami in Japan. |