NewsTracker Answers for week of June 11, 2012

Q: A huge dock torn from a Japanese port by the 2011 tsunami has washed up 5,000 miles away on on a beach in Oregon. Where is Oregon on this map?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Besides the the 66-foot dock, what else has drifted across the Pacific Ocean to North America?

A. 'Ghost' ship

B. Soccer ball

C. Motorcycle

D. All of the above


D. A schoolboy's soccer ball washed up on Middleton Island, Alaska. The U.S. Coast Guard used cannon to sink a crewless Japanese ship off Sitka, Alaska. And, a Harley-Davidson motorbike swept away by the tsunami was found inside a container on a beach in Canada.


Q: What is the name of the Canadian province north of Washington state where the the motorcycle washed up?

A. Alberta

B. British Columbia

C. Prince Edward Island

D. Yukon


B. The motorcycle came ashore on Graham Island off the coast of mainland British Columbia. The Alberta province is on British Columbia's eastern border, and the Yukon Territory is on its northern border. Prince Edward Island is one of Maritime provinces on Canada's Atlantic Coast.


Q: What caused the 2011 tsunami that killed nearly 16,000 people and generated an estimated 20 million tons of debris in Japan?

A. Landslide

B. Volcano

C. Earthquake

D. Nuclear explosion


C. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the shore of Japan created the wall of water that devastated the coast. A tsunami -- a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water -- can be caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides and underwater explosions, including nuclear detonations.


Q: Experts expect a surge of debris in the coming months, with the bulk of it due in the winter. What danger associated with the 165-ton Japanese dock worries environmentalists?

A. Invasive species

B. Toxic waste

C. Oil leak

D. Navigation hazard


A. A starfish native to Japan was among the marine life still clinging to the structure. John Chapman, a research scientist at Oregon State University said hundreds of other organisms, such as tiny crabs and algae, posed a "very clear threat."