A group of scientists from the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) has established that the bay can disappear in about 20 years - in one generation. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of colored glass will turn into ordinary sand, and the bay will be filled with sea gravel and pebbles. To find an answer to the question of how many years the bay will remain unchanged and what phenomena occur with it, more than 500 glass fragments were studied.
The landfill gave birth to a miracle
It is very simple to see Glass: just 20 minutes by car from the nearest microdistrict of Vladivostok. The road runs along the coast of the Ussuri Bay, skirting around dozens of small bays, reliably protected from the wind by high rocky capes. Now these bays have become a favorite vacation spot, but six years ago they were avoided due to choking smoke and mountains of garbage brought from a huge city dump, which was located right on the seashore.
But it was this dump that became the progenitor of a tourist attraction, which people come to see today from all over the country. For decades, not only paper and plastic waste, but also tens of tons of broken and whole bottles, glassware and ceramics have been dumped into the landfill. Over time, they ended up in the sea, where nature took over, crushing the debris and smoothing out sharp edges, and then throwing them onto the beaches.
"The rounded pieces of glass on the beach, on which the bay got its name, were formed because of the bottles, which were either whole or broken, were delivered by waves and current into the bay from a nearby landfill," says Petr, Doctor of Geography, Professor of the Department of Geography and Sustainable Development of Geosystems of FEFU. Brovko.
Pieces of glass are dotted with beaches in all bays near the former dump, but in Glass there are hundreds of thousands of them. And here nature again intervened: in the summer-autumn period, southeastern winds prevail in the Ussuri Bay, which determine the movement of water in the coastal zone. Therefore, everything that the sea carries is thrown onto the coast of small bays. And if they are well protected from the east by high and steep capes, then what was brought by the sea remains on the beach for a long time. These conditions are fully met by Glass.
For decades, waves threw shards of glass onto the beach of the bay, grinding and smoothing them. Today the entire coastal strip, 5–10 meters wide, is covered with glass "pebbles" 2–5 cm in size of various colors. Most often, green and white fragments come across, but if you look well, you can find bright red, deep burgundy, sky blue or azure. And on a sunny day and in the spray of waves, the beach flashes green, red and white, which attracts thousands of tourists every year.
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It won't be long to admire
However, admiring this miracle is not so long. Without a steady supply of new glass, a multi-colored beach could disappear within a generation. This conclusion was made by specialists of the Department of Geography and Sustainable Development of Geosystems of the FEFU, who on March 27, specially for TASS, conducted research in Glass. They not only examined the bay and assessed its ecological state, but took and studied about 500 samples of glass fragments and sand on the spot.
“It is already clear that the proportion of glass in the beach sediments is less than it was before, - I can compare it with the observations of twenty years ago,” says Petr Brovko about the research results.
According to scientists, the forecast for Glass is pessimistic.
“As for the forecasts, obviously, there will be enough glass for one generation, and then an ordinary sand-gravel-pebble bay will appear here, of which there are many in Primorye. Now there is a natural decline in glass due to abrasion, as well as a massive take away for souvenirs, which no one considered. In addition, the bay experiences incredible summer stress from the influx of tourists, which, coupled with the unobtrusive average service, does not allow seeing bright prospects,”scientists say.
Even now, the layer of glass "pebbles" on the shore does not exceed 10-15 cm, and under it there is sand mixed with glass fragments no more than 1 cm in size.
“According to the theory and practice of coastal studies, as a result of the wave action, the wreckage is distributed in size and weight: from larger ones in the upper part of the beach to smaller ones closer to the water and further to depth. Glass fragments behave in the same way as natural materials,”the scientists emphasize.
Not only nature is to blame for the destruction of Glass, thousands of tourists try to grab souvenirs as a keepsake, choosing the most rare in color and shape fragments of not only glass, but also ceramics. Many people take away not one or two, but dozens to use in home design. Individual entrepreneurs also come here, collecting free glass for the production of souvenirs and jewelry.
While remoteness saves
The Glass Bay has recently been included in the list of objects that the regional Tourist Information Center recommends to visit for guests of Primorye. Although here they understand the danger that mass tourism can pose for the ecology and preservation of the glass "wealth" of a small bay. “The place is stunningly beautiful, surrounded by rocks, and the glasses resemble volcanic rock. We include it in the list of places that we recommend a tourist to visit, but the bay is suitable for individual family holidays and it is not entirely reasonable to make it a place of mass influx of tourists. In addition, it is located apart from the main excursion routes and objects of display, which makes it inconvenient for inclusion in large tours,”said Daria Guseva, director of the Tourist Information Center of Primorsky Krai.
While Glass is a favorite vacation spot for single tourists who love to visit it at any time of the year. Even in winter, you can meet people here who enjoy the glare of the glass frozen in the ice in the sun.
“The bay is popular not only among the local population, but also among the guests of the region. These are more individual tourists who want to visit a place that has become widely known due to massive publications on social networks and, in general, an interesting history of its formation. To a greater extent, the bay is of interest to tourists from the USA and Europe. In the States, by the way, there is a beach of the same name in California at Fort Bragg, but our bay is more interesting because the glass on the shore is multi-colored, that is, it is more phenomenal,”Guseva notes.
Today, for the residents of the city, the Glass Bay has become not just a beautiful and unusual place to relax, but a symbol of the victory of nature over the irresponsibility and indifference of people who for decades dumped waste into the sea. Waves and wind were able to cope with the effects of pollution, turning glass debris into a safe and beautiful beach, teaching people a lesson in respect for the environment. “The sea is trying to cope with the wounds inflicted on it. But a person who “sounds proudly” must live in harmony with the environment,”Petr Brovko summed up the research of Glass by the FEFU scientists.
Marina Shatilova