The Temple of Jupiter Serapis at
Puzzuoli
Naples, Italy
The 2,000-year-old Roman
temple was built near the shore, partially submerged in the sea
after construction, and subsequently uplifted. The roughened area
in the middle of each column shows the effect of marine
rock-boring clams (Lithodomus). The dividing line between this and the smooth area at
the bottom of each column shows how far it was buried in sediment,
where it was not susceptible to clams. Charles Lyell used the
image above as the frontispiece for his Principles
of Geology (1830) to
demonstrate that ongoing geological processes can have significant
effects over long period of time.
The panorama
below shows the marketplace in the early 21st century. The
banding patterns are still visible.
