Plastic rocks were found on the island Trindade, which is more than a thousand kilometers away from the nearest land. The findings were named “plastiglomerates“, as it is a mixture of stone grains held together by melted plastic.
A team of researchers led by geologist Fernanda Avelar Santos from the University of Parana analyzed the masses and found that the melted plastic is mainly the remains of fishing nets. “ The nets are brought by sea currents to the beach of the island. When the temperature rises, the plastic melts and embeds itself in the natural material of the beach, Santos said.
The discovery is all the more troubling because it is Trindade one of the most important places for green turtles (chelonia mydas) in the world. Each year an island it is visited by around a thousand turtles that lay their eggs there. The only human inhabitants of the island are members of the Brazilian Navy, who, among other things, protect the turtle nests.
“ The place where we found these specimens is a protected area in Brazil, near where green turtles lay their eggs, ” explained the geologist Santos, who described the discovery as “scary”, as it is evidence of the growing influence of man on geological cycles.
“ Pollution, marine litter and plastics improperly dumped into the oceans become geological material preserved in the Earth’s geological record, ” she said and added that we have to to ask about human heritage on the planet.