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Are there “non modern roll up structures”?

Are there “non terrestrial roll up structures”?

Old mud curls first. Where are they and how did they get there?

And so what ?

So we shall have to do a little more side tracking to answer these questions:-

3 .9 billion years ago the first rocks began forming on mother Earth and surprisingly it did not take nature a great deal of time to seed its first life.

What form did life take?

Single cell bacteria became the first form of life that we know of and was the only life form for three quarters of the Earth’s history.
There may well have been millions of different single cell life at this time but since they held no skeleton very rare traces are all that remains of them. They must have been tolerant to the methane, nitrogen and co2 in the atmosphere.

3.5 billion years ago.

The single cell bacteria that has now proliferated the oceans gives rise to the first Cyanos, bacteria capable of photosynthesis and that are about to change the direction of life on earth for ever.

The earth was spinning 4 times faster than it is today. The sun is 3 times cooler. The heat from the earth's mantle compensates for the suns coolness. The oceans are acidic and full of suspended iron creating an environment inhospitable to life as we know it.
The greater the land masses developed the more erosion by rain and hence iron entered the sea.
Slowly the oxygen from the cyanobacteria began to fix the dissolved iron in the ocean to form iron oxides, the oceans acidity reduced. These sank to the bottom of the oceans and formed sediments there. (these are the deposits we mine today).
This type of geological sedimentary layers today are abbreviated as B.I.F.s and are of extreme importance in documenting the activity of these ancient bacterial organisms on earth.

It was these bacteria with there waste product from photosynthesis, namely oxygen, that was to change everything here on our planet. But those first forms of life had there work cut out for them .

Pumping out oxygen into the atmosphere it would take 2 billion years or more before our ozone layer began to form that would latter protect all life on earth from the powerful U.V. rays of the sun. The acidity of the oceans began to drop. Today there are 20 times more oxygen trapped in the sedimentary iron ore deposits than is free in our atmosphere.
Well what of cyanobacteria!, we know that cyanobactria became extremely successful populating all global shallow waters. Another of its actions was to reduce the level of co2 in the water immediately around it. This gave the opportunity for calcium to deposit it self around dense populations of cyanobaterias. As these sediments formed the bacteria migrated though them to grow again and again using photosynthesis. This action created stamatolites, allowing the bacteria to leave its so called finger prints at the scene of the crime. Or rather in our geological sedimentary deposit.

Other ancient signs of bacterial action on the environment were deposited in geological sedimentary layers called M.I.S.S. or microbial induced sedimentary structures, (gas domes, mud roll ups, microbial filamentous mats).

So how did these seemingly fragile structures survive to be recorded in today’s sedimentary records?

We talked before of the action of E.P.S.(agar agar) and its structural effects on roll ups or (mud curls), acting like resin on fibre glass increasing there strength significantly.
The secretions of polysaccharides infiltrating all the above M.I.S.S's gave them that added structural stability that ensured there survival and subsequent record within geological sedimentary deposits.
|Studies show that the survival of mud rolls without the action of bacteria within the geological sedimentary layers is extremely unlikely. It is this that makes them such a good marker for bacterial presence within our geological records. A degree of luck is also essential in insuring the preservation of these structures, such as volcanic ash being deposited on top of them soon after there creation, preserving there casts for instance.

B.I.F.s , we already talked about ...interaction of oxygen produced by cyanobacteria and the precipitation of iron oxides in geological sediments on the floor of the ocean.

2.5 billion years ago the photosynthesis by cyanobacteria finally raised the oxygen in the atmosphere to a level that was poisonous to nearly all the single cell life.
This was called “the great oxygen extinction”. But these microbes were resilient, and enough survived deep in the oceans to meet there next challenge “Snowball earth” a freezing of the entire earth for millions of years. This was caused by oxygen in the atmosphere reacting with methane, that had been acting as a green house gas warming the earth.
With this warming blanket stripped from the Earth temperatures could have arrived to that of the freezing point of co2. This di

January 02, 2011 - "Early Morning Waves"

Walking down 11th Ave. looking for food. End up at the Market Diner (11th Ave. between 43rd and 44th St.)

Expensive. Two eggs with bacon: $9.50. A fried egg sandwich without cheese or bacon: $6.75. Decide to skip food and just order a chocolate egg creme. After all... this is NYC, how could you go wrong with a Chocolate Egg Creme? Well... apparently you can. It sucked. Everyone else in our group is talking and eating... and I notice the wall behind our booth making a wave pattern of light. Grab my camera... focus... snap... capture.

Leave the diner... try to grab a cab, but none will take us because we are five. Walk to Times Square to catch the 1-Train. Subway to 23rd Street... I'm starving. Head straight to Chelsea Papaya (23rd St. and 7th Ave). Two dogs and fresh Papaya Juice for $4.25. That's more like it! There's a homeless man sleeping standing up in the corner... his head keeps bobbing down and hitting the pump top of the mustard dispenser, squirting a little out each time. Chow down on my dogs... and make our way back to the Chelsea.

Decide it's too early to head "home"... after all, it's only somewhere around 3AM. Head to Jake's Saloon (23rd Street between 7th & 8th) for a pint. Turns out the bartender lives in Stamford, next to Cove Beach. Talk with him for a while about Stamford and Connecticut.

The rest of our group decides to head back to the hotel... but Holly and I linger a while. Finish our drinks... then wander around the city. Misty rain... quiet... warm. Stop at a store to buy some Dipsy Doodles and bottled water. Head back to the Chelsea.

Get into our room... which is hot. Open the window... and I sit on the window sill for a while... looking out over the rooftops at the New York night. We're high up... 60 or 70 feet... with nothing preventing me from falling out. No screen... no bars... no nothing. Strange thoughts of possibilities fill my mind. I sit there for an eternity before heading to bed.

No sleep. Noise. Around 4:30 or 5:00AM there was a big fight in a room upstairs. Lots and lots of screaming. Someone beating the crap out of someone else. Women crying. Men yelling. Things being smashed. Someone pulled out a gun. No shots fired... just lots of yelling to "Put the gun away!". Metal crashing down the main stair-case. I just want to sleep... but it isn't happening. The bed is too damn hard!

Sunlight gets us out of bed. Check-out at 11AM. Sharing Dipsy Doodles in the lobby before catching a subway down to The Village. Brunch at Life Cafe (10th St. and Ave. B) for several hours. Pints of Champagne (yes... I said "pints")... and our wonderful waitress Annie, who lovingly called us all Buttholes and ended up with a $40 tip.

Sophie's Bar (5th St. Between A & B) for an hour or so. Pints of Guinness. Conversation. Pickle Back Shots (the most awesome shots in the world!)

Trash & Vaudeville where Ashley bought her first pair of Dr. Marten's (an awesome pair of matte white highs). Ray's Pizza (St. Mark's and 3rd Ave) for some Ziti Pizza before heading over to the market next to Zacky's on Broadway. New hat... some laughter.

Catch the subway back to the Chelsea to pick up our bags... then two cabs to Grand Central (my cab started to pull away as I was putting my suitcase in the back).

An hour to kill at GCT before the train leaves. Pretzels... Crossword Books... NY Times...

Long journey home. Fuzzy throat feeling and stuffy nose.

I think I'm getting sick.

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