Seeing in Colour : The Lithification of Microbial Mats in Salar de Atacama
Yingchi Chen
Microbial mats have existed in the earth for tens of thousands of years, containing within them bacteria and archaea with important research value. Microbial mats can record the history of geological changes of the earth. Countries with microbial mats have protected them to varying degrees. More and more evidence shows that micro ecology can be used to study future trends on a macro scale through the study of subtle environmental changes. The purpose of studying microbial mats is to reveal how human behaviour leads to the lithification of microbial mats. The purpose of this project is to show how the activity of the Chilean Atacama Basin lithium Mining companies disrupts the natural water cycle, which affects the healthy development of microbial mats, deprives the basic conditions of indigenous life through the invasion of territory, and affects the important history of geological records.
The Landsat Image in Salar de Llamara in Winter from 1984 to 2020
Visual Representation of Mineralisation
Digital Logic