It isn’t even on land.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a massive buildup of trash that’s floating in the Pacific Ocean. How massive? It has currently grown to be the size of Texas. The “island,” also dubbed “chemical soup,” has been one of the worst environmental disasters created by mankind for years–and it’s also been one of its best-kept secrets.

Many people don’t hear about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, simply because it hasn’t been covered by most news outlets. The Patch’s formation is due to A. human waste and B. the North Pacific Gyre. The North Pacific Gyre is a series of revolving currents located north of the Hawaiian Islands. Combined with weaker area currents, they serve to keep the ocean surface steady and calm–as well as to suck in oceanic debris with their high-pressure waves.

The problem, however, isn’t the waves: the problem is polymers–or, more specifically, plastic. Until its invention, the ocean was able to handle the buildup very well, simply using the materials that collected as nutrients for the creatures living in the icy blue depths. But plastic doesn’t dissolve, get absorbed, or get eaten; it just collects and floats–forming the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Researchers claim that up to 80% of the refuse originates from land, not ships or the ocean itself.

Last week, one of these tribes, the Bo tribe became extinct with the death of its last member, Boa Sr, age 85. She was the last living speaker of the tribe’s language, also called Bo, as well. The language was considered one of India’s most endangered languages.

As the last speaker, Boa Sr had lived out her last days without anyone to speak it with; her husband and children had already died years before her death. The woman was also the last tribe member to recall the tribe’s traditional songs, as well as the eldest member of all ten tribes.

Boa Sr, a survivor of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, died at a hospital in the Andaman islands.

According to Survival International, “The Bo are thought to have lived in the Andaman islands for as long as 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on earth.”

With Boa Sr’s passing, an estimated 52 Great Andamanese people remain living today. In 1858, prior to the British colonization of the islands, 5,000 of the people inhabited the islands. During this time, tribes were held captive in the “Andaman Home,” in which 150 children, none of which survived for more than two years, were born.

Of the tribes who remain, at least five are considered vulnerable to extinction. One group, the Sentinelese, is likely the world’s only surviving Paleolithic tribe. They have no contact with people outside their small island, never leave it, and are considered very hostile toward non-native people.

Some risk factors for these groups include alcohol abuse and dependence on the government for food and shelter.