Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Microplastics sully Antarctic snow — and science might be to blame

Plastic contamination probably came from clothing and other gear used at Antarctic research stations.
Four researchers in winter gear set up a Scott Tent on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, in high winds.

Microscopic fragments of plastic found in fresh snow on Antarctica (pictured) are similar to those shed by synthetic clothing. Credit: Cavan Images/Alamy

Snow that fell on a remote Antarctic island in 2019 contained tiny pieces of plastic — probably pollution from nearby research bases1.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Nature 606, 626 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01643-w

References

  1. Aves, A. R. et al. Cryosphere 16, 2127–2145 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links