Smithsonian.com

At sea off Waimanalo, a 4×4′ plastic bin is towed in the Makai Pier. Photo: Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.

A dock 30-by-50 feet long, with Japanese writing on it, was found floating off the coast of Hawaii, around the same time that a plastic blue bin (a seafood storage container in its past life) became the first confirmed piece of tsunami debris to reach Hawaii.

Authorities have not confirmed whether or not the dock was part of the debris that has been floating away from Japan since the tsunami struck in March 2011. But it is very similar to a dock that washed up in Oregon in June.

The docks are just a few of the weird bits of flotsam and jetsam that have journeyed across the Pacific in the wake of the disaster:

• A soccer ball that made it to Alaska was returned to its owner in Japan. It belonged to a 16-year-old that had lost everything in the tsunami.
• A 164-foot ship, the Ryou-Un Maru, was found floating off the Alaskan coast without anyone on board. The U.S. Coast Guard sunk it.
• In British Columbia huge pieces of Styrofoam dot the beaches. And Japanese writing on some of the bottles has led some locals to attribute the debris to the tsunami.
• A Canadian museum has even launched a Facebook page and is encouraging people to photograph debris they find that might be tsunami related.

More debris is likely to appear as ocean currents slowly bring the bits and pieces to shore, and Pacific Coast states are bracing for impact.

More from Smithsonian.com:

The Science Behind the Japanese Earthquake
Did Broken Buoys Fail to Warn Victims of the Mentawai Tsunami?