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[deleted] t1_ixv5800 wrote

Reply to comment by Chukwuuzi in Scientists have discovered that plastic pollution in Antarctica is as bad as everywhere else on the planet. Most of the microfibres were found in air samples, meaning that Antarctic animals and seabirds could very well be breathing them in. by Wagamaga

Who said they're human archaeologists?

It'd make an amazing discovery for them, though. A layer of freeze-thaw in the Antarctic ice sheet, contaminated with synthetic chemicals. It'd be utterly baffling, and after a few tens of thousands of years, our only legacy.

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Metlman13 t1_ixvjd7p wrote

eh, we'd have satellites in geosynchronous orbit remaining there for many thousands to even millions of years still intact, you could even be able to spot them in the night sky. Thats actually one way you'd be able to know Earth previously had an advanced civilization: those satellites would appear as bright spots in the sky, but unlike all the other stars and planets, they would never move from their position.

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[deleted] t1_ixvl5i2 wrote

Or, going by history, they'd just be explained away by religion. Given that all the easy-to-reach, high power density fuel sources have been depleted, it's not unreasonable to think the next civilisation may be stuck in the preindustrial era.

Also, geosynchronous orbits are only stable on short-ish time scales (tens to hundreds of years). When talking about tens of thousands or millions of years, you've got the perturbing forces of the Moon, the Sun, and the ellipsoid shape of the Earth all adding up. I'd be surprised if any of them are still up there by then.

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CorruptCashew t1_ixvzl5z wrote

Our only legacy?

They's find gigantic dams, enormous mines, extreme concentration of materials etc. Some plastivmc would be a curiositt.

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