Researchers have found rocks with melted plastic on a Brazilian volcanic island.
The discovery shocked the scientists.
Munich – Mankind is facing a major climate problem, pollution on our planet is high.
The greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are increasing and there are always "accidents" in the seas, in which substances pollute the Baltic Sea, among other things.
Researchers in Brazil have made another tragic discovery.
On the volcanic island of Trindade, they found rocks made from melted plastic.
Researchers make terrible discovery on volcanic island: "This is new and frightening at the same time"
Researchers have found so-called "plastiglomerates" on the Brazilian volcanic island, as reported by
CNN
.
They consist of a mixture of grains of sediment and other debris held together by plastic.
The scientists found the rock containing molten plastic about 1,140 kilometers from the southeastern state of Espirito Santo.
"This is both new and terrifying because the pollution has reached the geology," said Fernanda Avelar Santos, a geologist at the Federal University of Parana.
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A plastiglomerate from an earlier find in the USA.
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She and her team examined the plastic rock using chemical tests to find out what plastic it was.
"We found that [the pollution] is mainly from fishing nets, which are very common on Trindade's beaches," Santos said.
“The [nets] are carried away by the ocean currents and accumulate on the beach.
As the temperature rises, this plastic melts and embeds itself in the natural material of the beach,” the scientist explained.
Plastiglomerates on a Brazilian volcanic island: human influence on geology proven?
The volcanic island of Trindade is considered the world's most important sanctuary for the green sea turtle.
Thousands of turtles come ashore every year to lay their eggs.
Only members of the Brazilian Navy live on a base on the island.
They protect the nesting turtles.
"The place where we found these samples is a permanently preserved area in Brazil, near where green turtles lay their eggs," explained Santos.
The researcher said the discovery raises questions about the heritage of humans on Earth.
"We talk so much about the Anthropocene, and this is it," Santos said, referring to the proposed geological epoch.
The term Anthropocene is defined as human impact on the geology and ecosystems of the planet.
"The pollution, the garbage in the sea, and the plastic that is improperly disposed of in the oceans, become geological material — which is preserved in the geological record of the earth." The scientists see the finding of plastiglomerates as proof that humans also has a growing influence on the geological cycles of the earth.
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