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Black 'tar balls' found washed up on beaches in Sydney, Australia.The mysterious black balls that washed up on Sydney's beaches in mid-October were likely lumps of"fatberg" containing traces of human faeces, methamphetamine and PFAS, according to a new detailed analysis of their composition.
Similar sightings were soon reported at nearby Bondi, Bronte, Tamarama, and Maroubra beaches, prompting immediate closures and cleanup efforts. Authorities initially feared these could be toxic"tar balls", leading to health advisories and public warnings.
Analysing the part of the mass that we couldn't dissolve proved more challenging. Here we tried solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance and a method called Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, which uses infrared light to detect chemicals. The results suggested the presence of fats, but they were not definitive.
To unravel the complex composition of the blobs, we used carbon-14 dating, mass spectrometry, elemental analysis and microscopy techniques.
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