New Zealand, Europe Brief News – Microplastics have been found in freshly fallen snow in Antarctica for the first time.
Researchers from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand collected samples from 19 sites in Antarctica and each contained tiny plastic fragments.
The finding could accelerate snow and ice melting and pose a threat to the health of the continent’s unique ecosystems.
Microplastics stem from the erosion of plastic materials and are smaller than a grain of rice – sometimes even invisible to the naked eye.
The researchers found an average of 29 particles per litre of melted snow.
They identified 13 different types of plastics and the most common was polyethylene terephthalate (PET), mostly used in soft-drink bottles and clothing. This was found in 79% of the samples.
The research, conducted by University of Canterbury PhD student, Alex Aves, and supervised by Dr Laura Revell has been published in the scientific journal The Cryosphere.
Microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans.
Aves collected snow samples from the Ross Ice Shelf in late 2019 to determine whether microplastics had been transferred from the atmosphere into the snow. Up until then, there had been few studies on this in Antarctica.
