The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science recently received a donation fo quarried coral rock to be used in the new Museum’s live coral exhibit.  The large boulders weighing anywhere from 1-3 tons each will be stacked to create a natural coral rock base to which the live coral colonies that we are currently growing will be attached.  The benefits of using coral rock is that the geological composition of the rock is the same as a real coral reef.  Much of the rock contains fossilized coral and sea shells. We will begin constructing the base formation at the current Museum and utilize a stone mason to sculpt the rock face to create niches and holes for the fish and other animals which will inhabit the live coral exhibit.  The base formation will be disassembled and transported to the new Museum exhibit when the construction is complete.

The rock was donated by Tetra Tech, a company that is providing environmental engineering and consulting services for the Port of Miami Project.   They are working on creating the artificial reef that is part of the project.  Craig Kruempel, Senior Scientist/Project Manager and Jesse Davis, Coastal Engineer, of Tetra Tech worked with the Museum’s Senior Curator of Living Collections Skip Uricchio to determine the correct composition of the rock and the total amount needed to construct the exhibit base.  The total amount of rock donated was approximately 60 tons!  The Museum is very grateful to Tetra Tech and Craig and Jesse for their expertise  and assistance with this unique phase of the exhibit construction as well as the generous donation of the rock to make our Museum reef come alive.