Todays adventure embarked many different locations and also many different times. One of the key factors today was the presence of Coral either in reef form or in the the old quarry. While diving on a coral reef is an eye opening experience that everyone should partake in at least one time in their lives I found that walking through the old quarry gave me a realization of change that occurs worldwide.
The quarry showed a tale which started more than 125,000 years ago. The corals first had to acquire suitable growing conditions where light temperature and other water parameters fit their specific needs. After growing the corals were seen to grow straight up to maintain the light they needed to undergo their nutritional needs to survive. They continued to build up and even overlap each other till the water level recedes and the corals stopped growing and eventually became a slab of limestone. This was left uncovered until the railroad was being constructed and slabs of stone were needed to construct such a path. This lead the railroad industry to construct quarries locally to get material quickly, little did they know they had just stumbled upon years of construction themselves. After excavation the remnants of corals and which type of coral whether it be brain, knobby, mustard hill, etc. could be seen very clearly in the walls of the remaining quarry. The quarry also had on display some of the equipment used in excavating which gave me a great point of reference as to the magnitude of the work done. 
Diving previously in the day gave me a better understanding of what corals I should be looking for when visiting the quarry.
Thinking back on the day made me realize that even after my generation is long past someone may discover the reef that my fellow dive buddies and I dove on today. This nature walk also showed me that overtime even without human interaction or changing the world's atmosphere that natural changes in sea level are more common than any one person may believe.
#firecoralistheonlyrealcoralforme #allothercoralsdontmakemefeelthesametypeofway
Heres a link to corals in floridas coastline: https://floridadep.gov/fco/fco/content/floridas-coral-reefs
Heres a link to the quarry where corals can be seen in the walls: https://fla-keys.com/news/article/7780/
Heres a link to corals in floridas coastline: https://floridadep.gov/fco/fco/content/floridas-coral-reefs
Heres a link to the quarry where corals can be seen in the walls: https://fla-keys.com/news/article/7780/
Seeing a reef in a different perspective was amazing. The layers allowed us to look back into history and see what variety corals resided in at different periods of time throughout the limestone. My personal favorite was the brain coral fossils.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the coral in the quarry was really interesting. It really solidified the concepts I learned in Marine Geology and the "OH!" moments of seeing fossils and live specimens in the wate.
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