Does It Take Millions of Years to Form Rocks?

Does it really take millions of years for rocks to form? With the assistance of microorganisms, researchers at Murdoch University in Western Australia have been able to rapidly turn sand into stone. As Dr. David Catchpoole writes, the researchers at Murdoch “investigated microbes for their ability to produce a cementing agent (dubbed ‘biocement’) that would bind sand particles together, forming rock. The bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii (formerly known as Bacillus pasteurii) has an enzyme that enables it, in the right circumstances, to do just that. Its urease enzyme hydrolyses urea, and when this hydrolysis occurs in a calcium-rich environment, it generates binding calcite cement (calcium carbonate) as a by-product.” To continue reading the article, go to “Sand to Rock.”

Technorati Tags:
Biblical Christianity

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under