Tan Kai SweeThe Hamelin Pool Stromatolites were formed by bacteria life forms, algae, sediment and sand binding and forming hard rock over millions of years. They have survived here because of the high salt content of the water which is trapped by a sandbar within the two peninsulars of Shark Bay, the most western point of Australia.
The Stromatolites grow at an astonishingly slow rate — around 0.33 millimetres each year. Those at Hamelin Pool are a metre high and are considered rare and endangered living fossils.
For more than 3 billions years, stromatolites have contributed to the oxygenation of the earth’s atmosphere from a mere 1% to the present day 21% and provided the fuel for the evolution of higher life forms, animals and plants as we see today.
Video by KSTan, Citizen Journalist
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