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Biorock™ / Mineral Accretion Coral Growth (2)
Image # 41 / 3 Name: Accretion_Necklace_Apr_1999.jpg 
Ihuru Necklace, Maldives. April 1999. Four sections of reinforcing bar overgrown by mineral accretion. have been sawed off. The internal steel rods are completely without rust. Around 2 centimeters thickness of mineral accretion has grown in a year and a half. The blue and grey marks are paint scraped off the hacksaw blade. The dark ring indicates a period when the power was turned off. Dark colored surface material is a thin layer of microscopic algae growing on the exposed surface, while the light colored surfaces were buried in the sand.
Image # 42 / 5 Name: Accretion_samples,_Ihuru_4=_1.jpg 
Ihuru Necklace, Maldives. April 1999. Year and a half old samples of mineral accretion growing over steel rod. Two of the samples have superficial rust which formed after it was cut, from exposure to salt air, but the steel rods themselves are intact. Steel rods of two different thicknesses are seen. The second piece from the right has a coral skeleton embedded into the mineral accretion.
Image # 43 / 59 Image Name: Sandbags_Ihuru_Apr_1999jpeg_1.jpg 
Ihuru, Maldives. April 1999. Sandbags used to protect beach against erosion. This is extremely expensive and only provides temporary relief. The large mineral accretion breakwater called the Ihuru Necklace was built offshore from this site.
Image # 44 / 60 Image Name: Trinity_1_April_99jpeg_1.jpg 
Ihuru Trinity, Maldives. April 1999. One of three similar structures built at around 10 meters (30 feet) depth, with variety of branching and head corals growing on it.
Image # 45 / 61 Image Name: Trinity_2_Apr_1999jpeg_1.jpg 
Ihuru Trinity, Maldives. April 1999. Another view of one of the three structures with many small corals well established and starting to cover it.
Image # 46 / 62 Image Name: Wire_1_Apr_1999_jpeg_2.jpg 
Ihuru, Maldives. April 1999. Coral attached to structure by wire a few months previously. The coral has already completely overgrown the wire.
Image # 47 / 63 Image Name: Wire_mats_Apr_1999jpeg_1.jpg 
Ihuru, Maldives. April 1999. Freshly started coral nursery made of mesh on which mineral accretion is not yet visible and seeded with small fragments of branching corals.
Image # 48 / 1 Image Name: Accretion_1.jpg 
Preparation of a double walled cylindrical form for mineral accretion. Two concentric cylinders of square steel mesh are separated by circular spacers.
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