Ocean Gyre Convergence Zone

Subtropical ocean gyres don't just rotate — their wind-driven surface currents also converge slowly toward the center through Ekman transport, the same Coriolis-deflected flow that piles water into a shallow dome and pumps it downward at the gyre's core. Buoyant floating debris can't follow that downwelling, so it drifts inward and lingers, building up in a diffuse but persistent accumulation zone — the real physical origin of patches like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This simulator renders a live 3D ocean surface with thousands of floating debris particles advected by an analytic rotating-plus-converging current field, with an adjustable wind-driven "windage" term layered on top, so you can see how rotation strength, convergence strength and direct wind drag each shape how tightly debris concentrates near the center.