The ocean I unfortunately understand, what with all the plastic we throw in it. But I just read it was in fresh fallen antarctic snow! How?
In: 37
They blow around in the wind, they can get carried by water. Importantly, they never go away. They can only turn into more smaller pieces.
[Here is the scientific paper you are talking about](https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/2127/2022/).
Section 2.1: you can see they were not collecting snow right as it fell, but they were collecting it from the top 2cm of the ground.
Section 3.3: you can see the size of the microplastic particles. I was surprised they found some as big as 2.4mm (about 0.1 inches) since I thought this was about. On the other hand, they only found one or two of those, out of many liters of snow.
Section 4.3 is where they talk about where they think these microplastics came from. They measured more microplastics closer to the research stations, so they think they are coming from there. For example, they say that when you wash clothes made of plastic, a few bits of plastic fiber break off and get washed down the train. Then they go through the sewage treatment plant, and into the river/sea/lake.
Latest Answers