• _number8_@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Deep layer ocean sediment surveys in China (2020) show the presence of plastics in deposition layers far older than the invention of plastics

    wtfff

    • flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Maybe there’s plastics stuck to the things we detect plastics with?

      I should really give the scientist some credit, but I think this is a funnier outcome

      • SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Or there was plastic stuck to the machines used to sample and it contaminated the area during sampling. Or there was plastic in the lab during testing. Though potentially those should have been ruled out by testing a blank sample and a control sample of just the ‘empty’ sampling equipment.

    • Roboticide@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I feel like there could be a few rational explanations to that, but I want someone smarter than me to tell me what exactly they could be…

      • SwampYankee
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        1 year ago

        If the sediment is <100% consolidated, then water could be carrying microplastics down through the layers, even through microscopic voids.