These three globes were created for a National Geographic Daily News article summarizing the results of a journal publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers spent nine months circumnavigating the world's five major oceans to collect water samples and measure plastic fragment quantities. The globe maps display sample data (colored and graduated based on plastic item quantity) and the modeled plastic accumulation zones (grey polygons) derived from the water samples. Many thanks to Andrés Cozar, the lead scientist from the University of Cádiz, for graciously (and exclusively) providing the data to National Geographic.

Credit: NG Staff, Jamie Hawk. Source: Andrés Cozar, University of Cádiz, Spain