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What will our landfill contents be like after they've been buried for a million or more years?

I wonder what effect geological processes would have on everyday items – if a geologist were to dig into the remains of one of our landfills say, a million years in the future, would anything be recognizable? Would glass survive? What would everything else have turned into?

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  • Asked by jjmiller
  • on 2011-01-10 10:02:18
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Categories: Environment.

Tags: Landfill.

 

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Georg says:

Well,

in general that depends a lot on ground water and oxygen.

Metals will corrode to the oxides, that would need not more

than some hundred years even for the most bulky objects of

aluminium.

Glas:

is leached slowly in water, eg the acheologists have a

"obsidian clock". Obsidian (volcanic glas) often used in

precolumbian cultures, buried in wet soil will show thin

layers of leaching process, one layer per year,

similar to growth rings of trees.

The leaching depends very much on the composition

of the glas, in general the alkalis and CaO is dissolved

some silicate-rich reisdue is left behind.

Such leached surfaces can look like an oil film on water.

But: if there is low or no streaming water, the glas will

last for millions of years. Think od the green glas

found in the desert in western egypt. (from a comet impact)

Georg

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posted on 2011-01-10 10:28:55 | Report abuse


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ecstatist says:

LANDFILL HUMAN CONTENTS (CEMETARY) AFTER A FEW CENTURIES.

Slightly off subject but amusingly, it is predicted that breast enhancement devices (boob job bags) should last longer than bones in some soil types. That could cause bewilderment for future archeologist when they find teeth, fillings and boob job bags geometrically laid out.

Boob job bags have already been found to be useful forensically because they each have a unique serial number aiding in the identification of corpses.

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posted on 2011-01-15 07:12:10 | Report abuse

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Jon-Richfield says:

That is a very characteristic example of a frequent effect. Bone is only modestly resistant to certain classes of decay. Acid leaching of the calcium phosphates and microbial decay of the fibrous organic matter often can destroy bone quite rapidly. Solid masses of polymers that are protected from oxygen (if they are oxidisable, as most of them are) and not rapidly digestable by microbes may last indefinitely under layers of clay or airless organic matter.I would guess that slicone rubbers frequently used for implants should be pretty nearly indestructable in the short term.

This applies to certain classes of biogenic organic matter too.  For example, protected hairs and feather material, secure from moth and dermestid attack, sometimes will last underground for millennia, long after bones have rotted. They are accordingly of great importance in some classes of archaeological and palaeontological work, much as pollen grains may be. Like pollen grains, hairs are identifiable by experts, who can tell which animals had dropped them, and make estimates of where those animals had lived, and how common they had been.

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posted on 2011-01-15 11:19:53 | Report abuse


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Georg says:

In the "good" old days of

cold war, there was a joke about future archaeologists theories:

They will discerne  a region of "coca cola"-culture from 

a region of "non-coca cola", interpreting the glass waste.

Georg

 

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posted on 2011-01-15 12:34:24 | Report abuse


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wo8 says:

I recommend reading  

''The world without us'' by Alan Weisman 2007.

Among other fascinating stuff he analyses how long various objects survive without human maintenance. I think he says that copper would remain recognisable the longest, possibly indefinitely.

There is even a website with some cool animations.

 

 

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posted on 2011-01-16 21:51:26 | Report abuse


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