University of Leicester paleontologists Sarah Gabot and Jan Zarashivich have published a new book on how different types of so-called technolosils collapse in the past, including plastic bottles, patios, cell phones, old socks, spherical pens and many other hosts.
Wind turbine blades made from recycled materials may be one of the most surprising fossils discovered by future paleontologists. Image credit: Gemini AI.
In their book, Disposal: How Technorosil becomes our ultimate legacythe author explores what different human items look like, subject to natural processes for thousands to millions of years.
But one technical oil that may really turn your head among paleontologists in distant environments in exploring the extraordinary layers of human epoch is the relic of wind turbines.
“The fossils are not from row towers. They are made of metal and made of recycled metal,” Professor Zalasiewicz said.
“But the giant wind turbine blades are made from materials such as fiberglass, epoxy resin, and carbon fiber. These are extremely difficult to recycle, but they make fossils easier.”
“As wind turbines reach their end of life and are removed, huge 50m-long bladed landfills are growing, sliced into truck-length segments and appearing to be neatly stacked together.”
“Some of them have been buried for millions of years, and if you ultimately stumble upon an inquisitive, distant paleontologist, a massive, hollow, sawbone cemetery,” he said.
“Some are crushed and dulled by the movement of the earth, while others are full of mineral growth, but their impressive shape and enormous size shine through the layers.”
“For our distant explorers, they become a huge puzzle. Can they tell us that they were built to grab the wind, providing clean, renewable energy?”
“Perhaps if they can connect them together — just like we're reconstructing the skeletons of today's giant dinosaurs — we can see their aerodynamic shapes.”
“They become one puzzle among the millions we leave behind in our daily lives (and I think they'll also find more ominous fossils left behind by fossil fuel burning).
“There was nothing like this new fossil cornea in the 400 million years of history on Earth.”
“And now we should begin to understand this amazing, surprising, often toxic, what we leave on the planet.”
“To know how our countless discarded objects become fossilized in the distant future will help us deal with the growing mountains that we live in today.”
The author also explains the types of science that appear to show the footprints of distant humans on Earth for the average reader.
It offers a different perspective on fossils and fossils. It expands the ideas of what people think of as fossils and what they can convey to us.
“It was a real adventure to use an understanding of how fossils are formed in the past and apply it to the very new world of what we now call Technofossils,” Professor Gabbott said.
“But then, we were asked a really tough question. Will the most amazing technolosil we're leaving behind will be millions (or billions) now?”
“There are so many candidates comparable to wind turbines because of the 'the strangest human fossil of all time.' ”
“For example, there are countless different shapes that a pair of Y fronts can take when pressed within a layer (and explores a very specific question in the book).”
“There are some very distinctive, and very hard fossil smoke particles that come out of our power plants.”
“There are strange stories of tea bags, chicken feathers, non-stick frying pans, instantaneous patterns of silicon chips, copper wire that wraps around the world.”
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Sarah Gabot and Jan Zarashivich. 2025. How Technorosil becomes our ultimate legacy. OUP Oxford
Source: www.sci.news