|
|
|
|
|
Credit: D. Breger, LDEO; sample courtesy of W. Pitman, W. Ryan, and C. Major.
|
Black Sea Pyrite
Dee Breger
Lamont's Dee Breger also snagged second place in the photo category with another entry, captured by SEM and colorized using the popular Photoshop package. The image shows a tiny cluster of pyrite crystals forming inside a microplankton, called a coccolithophorid, taken from sediments in the Black Sea. The pyrite has replaced one cell nestled among the original armoring plates that once composed the plant's calcareous shell. Because the chemical reaction to create pyrite occurs when marine sediments lack oxygen, the image indicates that the bottom of the Black Sea was lifeless and stagnant when the planktonic remains were deposited there thousands of years ago.
See a larger version of the image
|
|
