HUGE DUMP FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
Images obtained by an underwater exploration robot at the seafloor of the Strait of Messina in Italy, have revealed the largest concentration of garbage ever recorded in deep waters anywhere in the world.
The photos extracted from ROV video footage show examples of benthic litter accumulations observed within channels in the Messina Strait, including: bricks, tires, clothes and large metallic objects, small and large mounds, sometimes formed around large items such as a buried car and a sunken boat.
Litter is patchy but pervasive on all surveyed channels, reaching densities up to 200 items in 10 meters of observation. Such impressive amount of litter can be explained by submarine canyons acting as carrier of marine litter from shallow water to the deep sea and a strong urbanization of the coastal area.
- Reference (Open Access): Pierdomenico et al., 2019. Massive benthic litter funnelled to deep sea by flash-flood generated hyperpycnal flows. Scientific Reports.