Old…and older….

 

 

Though the bird count at the Bannerghatta Zoo area was on the low side today (this seemed to be more of an "audio" than a "visual" day, with many more birds being heard than seen!)…we did see a lot of interesting stuff as usual. Here’s one:

diatom bgz 300411

 

Isn’t that really beautiful…and doesn’t it look like the prismatic effect of an oil slick on the puddle? Well…it does, and though it IS an oil slick in a way, it’s far more complex than that.

Diatoms

( here

is the Wiki link about them)

are a type of phytoplankton, which originated during the Jurassic period. Now, they ooze out on to the rock, and the debris forms a slick upon the water…and that’s what I’ve photopgraphed.

Remember, the sheet rock in and around Bangalore (Peninsular Gneiss) is among the oldest exposed sheet rock in the world, at about 3 billion years….so we were standing on the ancient past, and looking at the light reflecting on something from the Jurassic period…enough to awe anyone into wonder, awe…and silence!

 

Comments:

  1. Deepa Mohan says:

    Watching the ancient ages come alive before one is awesome!

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