First estimate of the mass of the technosphere

On 28 November 2016, an international team led by geologists from the University of Leicester published a paper in The Anthropocene Review journal in which they presented their calculations and estimate of the mass of Earth’s technosphere. An offshoot of Earth’s biosphere, the technosphere consists of every human structure and object that may become "technofossils" in the distant future. Everything from roads, cities, landfill sites, computers, phones, farms, vehicles, mines, airports and all the waste generated by them count towards the technosphere. According the study, the technosphere’s combined mass is approximately 30 trillion tonnes, equivalent to more than 50 kg per every m² of Earth’s surface.