Credit: M. Hoffman (Rochester Institute of Technology), S. Mason (Pennsylvania State University at Behrend)
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 75 percent of predicted worldwide plastic waste involves nine specific polymer types. These kinds of plastic were the focus of this model of Lake Erie completed using SDSC’s 'Comet' supercomputer. The plastic particles are shown in blue; the darker blue indicates a higher concentration of plastic.