December 14, 2011

Wednesday Geology Picture: A Barbadian Coral Boulder

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Geology students investigating the underside of a large coral boulder, Barbados, June 2009.

Geology picture-a-day week continues here at Georneys. Today’s picture shows an impressive boulder of coral on a beach in Barbados. The lowermost part of the boulder has been undercut by wave erosion, providing a perfect nook for some geology students to take a closer look at the fossilized coral preserved in the boulder. The top part of the boulder has some soil and vegetation that has developed– a miniature island ecosystem!

I visited this Barbados beach in 2009 as part of a class field trip for the Geodynamics Course at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Graduate school is hard work sometimes, but the field trips have definitely been a nice benefit! As part of the yearly Geodynamics Course, I’ve been on three field trips– one to Costa Rica, one to Barbados, and one to Switzerland and Italy.

Here’s a closer look at the fossilized coral in the boulder in the above picture:

A close-up view of the coral boulder, Barbados, June 2009. No scale- sorry ab0ut that!

If you missed them, here’s Monday’s picture and Tuesday’s picture. Several geobloggers have joined the geology picture-a-day meme. Even if you missed the first two days, feel free to join in today!