Although the shape and structure of the frustule vary from one diatom species to another, the frustule itself is a rather complex and well-organized structure capable of withstanding heavy loads.

This is a magnified image of the structure of the cell wall of a diatom from marine sediment collected off the coast of Namibia. This is a depth-coded image, meaning the colors you see correspond to ...

Blooms of diatoms—microscopic, photosynthetic algae—were alive and well beneath (and within) the lake's ice cover. "Some of the main winter-spring diatom bloom formers, like Aulacoseira ...