India, April 27 -- An aluminium tab from a drink can be found encased in a new form of rock on the Cumbrian coastline in Scotland. This discovery has provided scientists with shocking insight into the impact of human activity on the Earth's natural processes and materials.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have found that slag, an industrial waste product produced by the steel industry, is turning into solid rock in as little as 35 years.

The finding challenges centuries of understanding of the planet's geological processes, where research has shown that rock forms naturally over millions of years.

The researchers have documented a new 'rapid anthropoclastic rock cycle' for the first time, which mimics natural rock cycles but...