Scientists are becoming increasingly aware of plastic rocks formed when trash-laden waves crash against rocky shores.
This phenomenon, known as plastic rust, first reported The discovery was made in 2016 by Portuguese scientists who discovered unnaturally colored rocks on the idyllic island of Madeira off the northwest coast of Africa. In certain areas of the mid-intertidal coastline, up to 10 percent of rocks had polyethylene debris attached to them. Polyethylene is a form of plastic commonly used in soda bottles and food packaging.
Since this first discovery, plastic rocks have been found in various coastal areas. Earlier this year, geologists reported the discovery of blue-green plastic rocks on a remote volcanic island off the coast of Brazil. Fernanda Avelar Santos, a geologist at the Federal University of Paraná, said of the discovery: Reuters News Agency: “This is new and scary at the same time, because the contamination has reached geology.”
Plastic stones come in several different shapes. In some cases, plastic is physically integrated with rock deposits.However, stone and plastic are clearly Can be chemically fused In some situations, two materials bond tightly at the molecular level.
It is not yet known whether plastic rocks affect surrounding marine life, but researchers say they likely affect barnacles and other organisms that attach to the rocks.
Portuguese researchers on the island of Madeira reported that small snails were seen grazing on plastic rust. Experiments have shown that these animals have a hard time telling the difference between their natural food, algae, and plastic, raising concerns that the animals may be ingesting plastic. There is. Given the known dangers of plastic consumption, this highlights a new potential threat to the wider marine ecosystem.
Whatever its impact, the presence of plastic stones is a pretty damning sign of how widespread plastic pollution is. It is estimated that there are over 171 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, an astonishing statistic considering it has only been a century since plastics were widely used.
Plasticlast is also a clear sign that human activity is beginning to have a major impact on the geological record. Scientists sometimes use the term Anthropocene when discussing how human activities are impacting the Earth. This is a proposed geological era that explains how human activities are changing the natural world. This includes everything from nuclear residue and greenhouse gas emissions to plastic pollution.
Not everyone is aware of this term, as geological time frames usually operate on huge time scales rather than centuries. However, the presence of plastic-infused rocks provides very clear evidence that human industrial activity is having some impact on Earth’s geology.