Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Santos, Fernanda Avelar
• Diório, Giovana Rebelo
• Guedes, Carlos Conforti Ferreira
• Fernandino, Gerson
• Giannini, Paulo C.F.
• Angulo, Rodolfo José
• de Souza, Maria Cristina
• César-Oliveira, Maria Aparecida Ferreira
• dos Santos Oliveira, Angelo Roberto

Titel

Plastic debris forms: Rock analogues emerging from marine pollution

Ist Teil von

• Marine pollution bulletin, 2022-09, Vol.182, p.114031-114031, Article 114031

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Continuous input of plastic litter in ocean and coastal environments achieved alarming levels that are exposing new settings in natural systems. While novel plastic debris pollution, with rock-like appearance, has been reported worldwide, fundamentally geological analyses are still lacking. We surveyed the first occurrence of multiple associated plastic debris on a single outcrop located in a remote site (Trindade Island, SE Atlantic Ocean). Even though all plastic debris forms consisted of polypropylene and polyethylene, through a sedimentary approach (cross section, macro, and micro analyses) distinct types were identified. We detected plastiglomerates, geogenic analogous to conglomerates, divided into in situ and clastic types, and formed over beach sediment. We identified plastistones as a new type with homogeneous composition (lacking incorporated materials), geogenic-looking igneous rocks, divided into in situ and clastic types, and formed over rock surfaces. We linked pyroplastics, geogenic analogous to clasts, to clastic plastiglomerates/plastistones, therefore representing clastic types of plastic debris forms. This association was correlated in a depositional system model, which suggests that plastic debris forms are rock synthetic equivalents in which humans act as depositional and post-depositional agents. [Display omitted] •Marine pollution has triggered a novel situation in Earth Sciences.•First sedimentary approach to plastic debris forms found on a single site.•Field observations linked plastic debris forms to different substrate types.•Plastistone is a novel plastic debris form.•Humans became geological agents in processes considered essentially natural.