Cleaning Up from Antarctic Research

Over the years trash from research expeditions in Antarctica has accumulated. In order to clean up the debris a new method of detecting metals in soil has been developed. It is being used to clean up Australian Antarctic landfills from the 1960s to 1980s. It is part of the retroactive effect of the 1991 Antarctic Treaty calling for all sites polluted by human activity be cleaned up to protect the Antarctic environment. Read more about the method for detecting metals and level of soil contamination here.