Oxides

This is the Oxide collection.

Oxides from Ted Rogers on Vimeo.

We owe the earth's vast Iron deposits to Oxygen's appearance 3.7 billion years ago. Oxygen was produced by tiny blue-green bacteria, which converted Earth's early Carbon Dioxide atmosphere to Oxygen as part of their respiration process- something that plants still do today.

Free iron atoms in the oceans came into oxygen and rusted, falling to the bottom of the sea. As the continents drifted, these iron deposits came onto dry land.

These bacteria formed huge, reef like communities, called stromatolites. You can see fossilized stromatolite colonies on the second floor of the museum.