Diatomite

A pale grey band running sideways through the rock face of a stony shore, around sea level. Light and soft — a pickaxe cuts it straight out.

Generation

• Bedded layer: stony shore

Ecological basis

An old marine bed of settled diatom shells; on stony shores it breaks out of the rock face around sea level as a pale grey band.

Usage

Read the shore wall sideways

Do not dig for it. Walk a stony shore and read the cliff from the side: where a band paler than the surrounding rock runs sideways around sea level, that is where to cut. It never takes the place of sand or gravel under the water.

As an ingredient

Behavior

Fire it before you build

Freshly cut diatomite still holds water and cannot take a fire. Burn it in a furnace into fired diatomite first, then build the grill stand or the grill net from that.