limestone
dr. dolittle | April 3, 2014 Photo Credit: Liew Thor-Seng
Ten new species of snails in the genus Plectostoma have been discovered in the limestone hills of Southeast Asia. Limestone hills are not common in this region, so the individual snail species are often isolated to just one hill. Therefore mining has threatened their existence and several species are already extinct or endangered.
Source:
LiveScience
greengabbro | August 21, 2008I was struck by the similarity of these two images. Which one does your dentist want you to eat?
I won't speculate about anyone's dentist's motivations, but the top image comes from The Science of Ice Cream, and the bottom from the USGS. I'm not sure what conditions the ice cream was stored under, but the USGS image is from a limestone that had been stored next to a piping hot intrusion of monzonite, and partially baked into marble.
Frozen desserts left in the freezer too long will undergo a similar process. The edges of each ice crystal are constantly exchanging water with the sugar…