This is an artist’s interpretation of a new phenomenon in the rock record: a plastiglomerate. Made of a combination of plastics, shell, and rock, this mass of non-biodegradable material is a replica of what is being found in nature, which may be a future marker of the Anthropocene.
The Anthropocene is the current geological era in which humans are making a profound impact on the geological strata. While the term itself is still being debated by geologists, the museum is embracing it as a social and cultural tool for exploring the broad sum effect humans are having on the planet in the exhibition We Are Nature: Living in the Anthropocene—open now through summer 2018.
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