Work in progress

Photographic montage
with mirrored foil
5" x 6"
Original image- Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool Shark Bay Western Australia

Evidence of the beginnings of life on Earth can be found in the saline waters of Hamelin Pool - the famous stromatolites. Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is one of only two places in the world where living marine stomatolites are known to occur and it is the only place where they can easily be seen from shore. Microscopic organisms - invisible to the human eye -concentrate and recycle nutrients which combine with sedimentary grains to form domes of rock-like materials known as Stromatolites. Stromatolites first colonised the shallow waters of Hamelin Pool a recent 2000 - 3000 years ago, but the organisms that built them were the earliest forms of life on Earth, with a lineage dating back 3500 million years.