An aluminum tab from a drinks can found encased in a new form of rock on the Cumbrian coastline has helped provide scientists with a shocking new insight into the impact of human activity on Earth’s natural processes and materials. Researchers from the University of Glasgow have found that slag, an industrial waste product produced by the steel industry, is turning into solid rock in as little as 35 years.
The finding challenges centuries of understanding of the planet’s geological processes, where research has shown that rock forms naturally over millions of years. The researchers have documented for the first time a new ”rapid anthropoclastic rock cycle,” which mimics natural rock cycles but involves human material over accelerated timescales. They believe the cycle is likely to be underway at similar industrial sites around the globe.
The findings represent the first fully documented and dated example of the complete rapid anthropoclastic rock cycle occurring on land. In the paper, the team note that a similar process had previously been observed in the Gorrondatxe coastal system near Bilbao, Spain. However, researchers there were unable to determine how long the process had been underway due to the waste being deposited in the sea before being returned to the beach.
Source: Phys.org
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