<p>Likened to an "alien mother ship" of invasive species, an enormous <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/japan-guide/">Japanese</a> dock—set free more than a year ago by that country's deadly <a href="http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/tsunami-profile/">tsunami</a> and <a href="http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/earthquake-profile/">earthquake</a>—landed on an <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/united-states/oregon-guide/">Oregon</a> beach last week, as seen in a picture snapped last Thursday.</p><p>Encrusted with a hundred tons of Asian crabs, sea stars, algae, urchins, barnacles, snails, and other life-forms, the 66-foot-long (20-meter-long) dock had floated 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) across the Pacific from the port of <a href="http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/map-machine#s=h&c=40.69105162801024,%20141.4239120483399&z=11">Misawa (map)</a>.</p><p>(See National Geographic News's <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110311-tsunami-earthquake-japan-hawaii-science-world-waves/">complete Japan earthquake and tsunami coverage</a>.)</p><p><em>—Brian Handwerk</em></p>
Monolith
Likened to an "alien mother ship" of invasive species, an enormous Japanese dock—set free more than a year ago by that country's deadly tsunami and earthquake—landed on an Oregon beach last week, as seen in a picture snapped last Thursday.
Encrusted with a hundred tons of Asian crabs, sea stars, algae, urchins, barnacles, snails, and other life-forms, the 66-foot-long (20-meter-long) dock had floated 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) across the Pacific from the port of Misawa (map).
(See National Geographic News's complete Japan earthquake and tsunami coverage.)
—Brian Handwerk
Pictures: Tsunami Dock Is "Alien Mother Ship" of Species
Teeming with invasive life-forms, the Japanese dock that recently hit the U.S. is a "dirty needle that just got stuck into our ecological arm."
