Industrial Waste Turning to Rock At A Very Fast Pace: Study

Researchers came across a shocking new insight into Earth's natural processes, revealing how an industrial waste product turned into solid rock in a span of just 35 years. Slag is a solid waste generated in the process of steel making, mainly composed of oxides of calcium, iron, silicon and magnesium. It was turned into solid rock, baffling the researchers as they previously assumed that the process would take thousands or millions of years.

In a paper published in the journal Geology, the researchers have explained the details of the study they carried out after an analysis of a two-kilometre stretch of deposit.

Dr Amanda Owen of the University of Glasgow's School of Geographical and Earth Sciences is the paper's corresponding author. Dr Owen said: "For a couple of hundred years, we've understood the rock cycle as a natural process that takes thousands to millions of years.

"What's remarkable here is that we've found these human-made materials being incorporated into natural systems and becoming lithified - essentially turning into rock - over the course of decades instead," Dr Owen added.

Also Read | Shiny Orange Glass Beads On Moon Reveals Its Explosive Past

She believes that the finding challenges the previous understanding of how rock is formed. It also suggests that the waste material humans are producing in creating the modern world is going to have an "irreversible impact on our future".

The team's lab analysis was strengthened by a surprising discovery: modern materials were found trapped in some samples, which helped them figure out how long it took for the slag to turn into stone (lithification).

"We were able to date this process with remarkable precision," said Dr John MacDonald, a co-author of the study.

"We found both a King George V coin from 1934 and an aluminium can tab with a design that we realised couldn't have been manufactured before 1989 embedded in the material," Dr MacDonald said, adding that they got a maximum timeframe of 35 years for this rock formation.

Researchers revealed that this is an example of the microcosm, which highlights the fact that all the activity on Earth's surface will eventually end up in the geological record as a rock. "But this process is happening with remarkable, unprecedented speed," Dr MacDonald said.