High peaks, low valleys, and even the air we breathe is filled with microscopic bits of plastic. Gizmodo Earther reports new research shows that even Arctic ice has microplastics gracing their surfaces.
Snow is what the researchers called a “scavenger” that slaps pollutants like microplastic and other airborne particles together. The new findings looked at snow on top of ice floes to assess whether microplastic was blowing in the wind to the Arctic as well.
Snow samples were taken from nine ice floes in the Fram Strait, between Greenland and Norway’s Svalbard island. The researchers posit that wind could have blown pollution from cities to the high Arctic.
Previous research found microplastics were trapped in sea ice, remnants of plastic bits likely transported via the ocean.
