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Gandoku t1_jd8f636 wrote

I was looking up how these rock formations were formed and found:

> The cliffs were once part of an ancient coral reef that covered most of Southeast Asia during the time when the earth’s oceans were hundreds of feet higher than they are today. Millions of years passed and cliffs remained standing, towering like magnificent rock giants.

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Nole_in_ATX t1_jd9frvr wrote

The notion that the oceans were once hundreds of feet higher than they are right now is fucking terrifying

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oddible t1_jda7vno wrote

Don't worry, global warming will bring them back.

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[deleted] t1_jdanyw5 wrote

[removed]

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nightlyspell t1_jdappnu wrote

Bot replicating top-level comments^

The rest of its (short-lived) account has only non-sensical replies to other comments. Report for Bot & Spam.

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Cambrianish t1_jdal0lu wrote

Lol no

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More-Nois t1_jd8s4g3 wrote

Thank you! I was wondering that. Fascinating.

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ReallyFnCleverName t1_jd9apb4 wrote

There's many examples of this around the world that people don't realize. Another one would be El Capitan in Texas.

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fooob t1_jdb5zvc wrote

Isn't el Capitan in Yosemite? There's another one?

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W_Anderson t1_jda2lqc wrote

I was just thinking of El Cap!!! It was one of my favorite hikes on a cross country trip.

I hiked it at night and watched the sun come up over the high plains…then hiked down and drove back to Florida.

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TheresANewPharoah t1_jdbkkg1 wrote

Eh…. There’s also uplift happening because of the subduction zone. It’s not JUST sea level decline.

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Musk-Order66 t1_jdap7te wrote

Wait so if those are from a coral reef… that’s a fossil?!

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Gandoku t1_jdaqkai wrote

I think not exactly? But I'm not sure. This website explains it pretty well imo: https://www.paddleasia.com/karst-topography.htm

I'm not a geologist or anything but summarizing some of the info, Coral Polyps deposited the lime that turned into limestone ~100 million years ago. Halfway down that page is a photo of how the bottoms are more narrow than the tops on some formations as the sea levels went down and carved them out

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JimJohnes t1_jdavgk5 wrote

It's not only coral reef, it was bottom of an ocean so it's everything that had calcium- and silica-based skeletal structure, including plankton and mollusks. All limestone and chalk is made of fossils, just not in intact state.

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Elgin-Franklin t1_jdb18we wrote

The whole thing isn't a single fossil, but it is made of fossilised corals, shells, and carbonate minerals that are deposited in between them as mud.

If you can get yourself to any limestone outcrop near you there's a good chance you'll find fossils in them

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JimJohnes t1_jdaxqlg wrote

This is so called buttes, limestone remnants that are more errosion resistant than rock around them that weathered away.

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