Plastic-rock hybrid discovered in Andaman’s Aves island

In News

• A team of marine biologists during routine monitoring of marine litter in some of the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have stumbled upon a piece of rock made from plastic.

About

• The rock which was discovered on a beach on Aves Island is the first such find from India.
• Known as Plastiglomerate, the rock is composed of sand, rock fragments, shells and other materials held together by plastic, resulting in a plastic-rock hybrid. It is a new form of plastic pollution described by scientists in 2014.
• Laboratory analysis showed that it has two very commonly used plastic polymers– polyethene and polyvinyl chloride– which hold the smaller rock and sand particles to form a rock.
• Other newly discovered forms of marine plastic pollution include plastic crust (a layer of plastic encrusted onto ocean rocks and Pyroclastic– burnt plastic that looks like pebbles). These forms of plastic pollution have the potential to survive millions of years and may even enter the geological record,

Aves Island

• Located in the North and South Andaman districts of Andaman Islands. The island lies 140 km north of Port Blair.  According to the 2011 Census, there are just two people on Aves Island. Both are male.

Source: HT