1.
Feldspar
–
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals that make up about 40% of the Earths continental crust. Feldspars crystallize from magma as veins in both intrusive and extrusive rocks and are also present in many types of metamorphic rock. Rock formed almost entirely of plagioclase feldspar is known as anorthosite. Feldspars are also found in types of sedimentary rocks. The name feldspar derives from the German Feldspat, a compound of the words Feld, field, and Spat, the change from Spat to -spar was influenced by the English word spar, a synonym for mineral. Feldspathic refers to materials that contain feldspar, the alternate spelling, felspar, has largely fallen out of use. This group of minerals consists of tectosilicates, solid solutions between albite and anorthite are called plagioclase, or more properly plagioclase feldspar. Only limited solid solution occurs between K-feldspar and anorthite, and in the two solid solutions, immiscibility occurs at temperatures common in the crust of the earth. Albite is considered both a plagioclase and alkali feldspar, the alkali feldspars are as follows, orthoclase —KAlSi3O8 sanidine —AlSi3O8 microcline —KAlSi3O8 anorthoclase —AlSi3O8 Sanidine is stable at the highest temperatures, and microcline at the lowest. Perthite is a texture in alkali feldspar, due to exsolution of contrasting alkali feldspar compositions during cooling of an intermediate composition. The perthitic textures in the alkali feldspars of many granites can be seen with the naked eye, microperthitic textures in crystals are visible using a light microscope, whereas cryptoperthitic textures can be seen only with an electron microscope. Barium feldspars are also considered alkali feldspars, barium feldspars form as the result of the substitution of barium for potassium in the mineral structure. The barium feldspars are monoclinic and include the following, celsian—BaAl2Si2O8 hyalophane—4O8 The plagioclase feldspars are triclinic, the immiscibility gaps in the plagioclase solid solutions are complex compared to the gap in the alkali feldspars. The play of colours visible in some feldspar of labradorite composition is due to very fine-grained exsolution lamellae, chemical weathering of feldspars results in the formation of clay minerals. About 20 million tonnes of feldspar were produced in 2010, mostly by three countries, Italy, Turkey, and China, Feldspar is a common raw material used in glassmaking, ceramics, and to some extent as a filler and extender in paint, plastics, and rubber. In glassmaking, alumina from feldspar improves product hardness, durability, in ceramics, the alkalis in feldspar act as a flux, lowering the melting temperature of a mixture. Fluxes melt at a stage in the firing process, forming a glassy matrix that bonds the other components of the system together. In the US, about 66% of feldspar is consumed in glassmaking, including glass containers, ceramics and other uses, such as fillers, accounted for the remainder
Feldspar
–
Feldspar crystal (18×21×8.5 cm) from
Jequitinhonha valley,
Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil.
Feldspar
–
Compositional phase diagram of the different minerals that constitute the feldspar solid solution.
Feldspar
–
Lunar ferrous
anorthosite #60025 (
plagioclase feldspar). Collected by
Apollo 16 from the
Lunar Highlands near
Descartes Crater. This sample is currently on display at the
National Museum of Natural History in
Washington, D.C.
Feldspar
–
Labradorite.
2.
Microcline
–
Microcline is an important igneous rock-forming tectosilicate mineral. It is an alkali feldspar. Microcline typically contains minor amounts of sodium and it is common in granite and pegmatites. Microcline forms during cooling of orthoclase, it is more stable at lower temperatures than orthoclase. Sanidine is a polymorph of alkali feldspar stable at yet higher temperature and it is a fully ordered triclinic modification of potassium feldspar and is dimorphous with orthoclase. Perthite is either microcline or orthoclase with thin lamellae of exsolved albite, Amazon stone, or amazonite, is a green variety of microcline. It is not found anywhere in the Amazon Basin, however, the Spanish explorers who named it apparently confused it with another green mineral from that region. The largest documented single crystals of microcline were found in Devils Hole Beryl Mine, Colorado, US and this could be one of the largest crystals of any material found so far. Microcline is commonly used for the manufacturing of porcelain, list of minerals Alkali feldspars U
Microcline
–
Microcline feldspar
Microcline
–
Photomicrograph of
thin section of microcline showing crosshatched
crystal twinning (in cross
polarized light)
Microcline
–
Feldspar (Amazonite)
3.
Amazon River
–
The Amazon River, usually abbreviated to Amazon, in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world and, according to some authors, the longest in length. Brazilians call this section the Solimões River above its confluence with the Rio Negro to form what Brazilians call the Amazon at the Meeting of Waters at Manaus, the rivers largest city. The Amazon basin is the largest drainage basin in the world, the portion of the rivers drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other rivers basin. The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic Ocean, during what many archaeologists call the formative stage, Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South Americas highland agrarian systems. Early human settlements were based on low-lying hills or mounds. Shell mounds were the earliest evidences of inhabitation, they represent piles of refuse and are mainly dated between 7500 and 4000 years BP. They are associated with ceramic age cultures, no preceramic shell mounds have been documented so far by archaeologists, artificial earth platforms for entire villages are the second type of mounds. They are best represented by the Marajoara culture, figurative mounds are the most recent types of occupation. There is ample evidence that the surrounding the Amazon River were home to complex and large-scale indigenous societies, mainly chiefdoms who developed large towns. Archeologists estimate that by the time the Spanish conquistador De Orellana travelled across the Amazon in 1541 and these pre-Columbian settlements created highly developed civilizations. For instance, pre-Columbian indigenous people on the island of Marajó may have developed social stratification, in order to achieve this level of development, the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest altered the forests ecology by selective cultivation and the use of fire. Scientists argue that by burning areas of the forest repetitiously, the people caused the soil to become richer in nutrients. This created dark soil areas known as terra preta de índio, further research has hypothesized that this practice began around 11,000 years ago. Some say that its effects on forest ecology and regional climate explain the otherwise inexplicable band of rainfall through the Amazon basin. Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare, james Stuart Olson wrote, The Munduruku expansion dislocated and displaced the Kawahíb, breaking the tribe down into much smaller groups. First came to the attention of Europeans in 1770 when they began a series of attacks on Brazilian settlements along the Amazon River. In March 1500, Spanish conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first documented European to sail up the Amazon River. Pinzón called the stream Río Santa María del Mar Dulce, later shortened to Mar Dulce, literally, sweet sea, because of its fresh water pushing out into the ocean
Amazon River
–
Sunset on the Amazon at
Leticia, Colombia
Amazon River
–
Floating houses of
Leticia,
Colombia
Amazon River
–
The Amazon originates from the Apacheta cliff in
Arequipa at the
Nevado Mismi, marked only by a wooden cross.
Amazon River
–
Source of the Amazon
4.
Miass
–
Miass is a city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located 96 kilometers west of Chelyabinsk, on the eastern slope of the Southern Ural Mountains, on the bank of the Miass River. Miass name is taken from the Bashkirs, the inhabitants of these places. It was founded in 1773 as a copper mining factory, during the 19th century, the development was driven by the discovery of the richest gold deposits in the Urals. Average annual extraction of gold from the Miass region was about 640 kilograms, in the mid-19th century, the volume of gold mining went down, and the development of Miass also slowed. Town status was granted to Miass in 1923, in 1941, an automobile factory was built. As a municipal division, the City of Miass is incorporated as Miassky Urban Okrug, currently Miass is a major machinery center. The truck manufacturer UralAZ is one of its most important factories, a total of 260 businesses operate in Miass. UralAZ produces multiaxle-axle, full-drive trucks of high cross-country passability and exports 8% of the trucks, UralAZ was included in the rating of 200 biggest Russian companies in 2000 in volume of sales, and employs 105,000 people. It was established in 1942, when the ZiS factory was evacuated from Moscow during World War II The Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau creates Submarine-launched ballistic missile, in 1955, it was moved from Zlatoust, where it was established at 1947, to Miass. The old part of the city comprises 19th-century wooden houses with balconies, jambs. The house of the gold mines administrator, Simonov, has also been preserved, lake Turgoyak is located near Miass and is a popular tourist location, with crystal clear water. Miass has a rich mineralogical museum, as it is close to the Ilmensky Mineral conservation area, to the East of Miass is the Ilmenskyy Zapovednik, a large protected forest. Not far into the forest, trails lead to fresh-water springs, Постановление №161 от25 мая2006 г. «Об утверждении перечня муниципальных образований Челябинской области и населённых пунктов, входящих в их состав», Постановления №2255 от23 октября2014 г. «О внесении изменений в перечень муниципальных образований Челябинской области и населённых пунктов, Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован, Южноуральская панорама, №111–112,14 июня2006 г, official website of Miass Unofficial website of Miass
Miass
–
A building in Miass
Miass
–
This photo was taken in a protected forest in Miass, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia next to a fresh-water spring. It shows Birch (Betula spp.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).
Miass
–
The Miass pond, Proletarskaya street. November 16, 2014.
5.
Chelyabinsk
–
During Pugachevs Rebellion, the fortress withstood a siege by the rebel forces in 1774, but was eventually captured for several months in 1775. In 1782, as a part of Ufa Viceroyalty that was reformed into Orenburg Governorate, Chelyabinsk became a seat of a its own uyezd and finally was granted town status. Until the late 19th century, Chelyabinsk was a provincial town. In 1892, the Samara-Zlatoust Railway was completed which connected it with Moscow, also in 1892, construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Chelyabinsk started and in 1896 the city was linked to Ekaterinburg. Chelyabinsk became the hub for relocation to Siberia, for fifteen years more than fifteen million people - a tenth of Russia - passed through Chelyabinsk. Some of them remained in Chelyabinsk, which contributed to its rapid growth, soon Chelyabinsk started turning into a major trade center, its population reached 20,000 inhabitants by 1897,45,000 by 1913, and 70,000 by 1917. For rapid growth at the turn of the 20th century, similar to American cities, during the first Five-Year Plans of the 1930s, Chelyabinsk experienced rapid industrial growth. Several establishments, including the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant and the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, were built at this time, during World War II, Joseph Stalin decided to move a large part of Soviet factory production to places out of the way of the advancing German armies in late 1941. This brought new industries and thousands of workers to Chelyabinsk, facilities for the production of T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers existed in Chelyabinsk. During World War II, it produced 18,000 tanks, in the press of the time Chelyabinsk was informally called Tankograd or Tank City. Kirov Factory no.185 moved here from Leningrad to produce heavy tanks, fragments fell in and around Chelyabinsk. Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said 1,100 people had called for medical assistance following the incident, one woman suffered a broken spine. Kolesnikov also said about 600 square meters of a roof at a factory had collapsed. The size has been estimated at 17 meters diameter with a mass of 10,000 or 11,000 metric tons, the power of the explosion was about 500 kilotons of TNT, which is 20–30 times more energy than was released from the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima. Luckily, thanks to the altitude of the explosion the city managed to avoid large casualties. Chelyabinsk is the center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the City of Chelyabinsk—an administrative unit with the equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the City of Chelyabinsk is incorporated as Chelyabinsky Urban Okrug, in June 2014, Chelyabinsks seven city districts were granted municipal status
Chelyabinsk
–
A pedestrian street in central Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk
–
Tea-packing factory Kuznetsov (1898)
Chelyabinsk
–
Trading house negotiant Valeyev (1911)
6.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
Russia
–
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
Russia
–
Flag
Russia
–
The
Baptism of Kievans, by
Klavdy Lebedev
Russia
–
Sergius of Radonezh blessing
Dmitry Donskoy in
Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the
Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by
Ernst Lissner
7.
Pikes Peak
–
Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The ultra-prominent 14, 115-foot fourteener is located in Pike National Forest,12.0 miles west by south of downtown Colorado Springs, the mountain is named in honor of American explorer Zebulon Pike, who was unable to reach the summit. The summit is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude, Pikes Peak is one of Colorados 53 fourteeners, mountains more than 14,000 feet above sea level. The mountain rises 8,000 ft above downtown Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark. Tava or “sun, ” is the Ute word that was given by these first people to the mountain that we now call Pikes Peak, the band of Ute people who called the Pikes Peak region their home were the Tabeguache, meaning the People of Sun Mountain. The Ute people first arrived in Colorado about 500 A. D. although their traditions say they were created on Pikes Peak, in the 1800s, when the Arapaho people arrived in Colorado, they knew the mountain as Heey-otoyoo’ meaning Long Mountain. Early Spanish explorers named the mountain El Capitán meaning The Leader, American explorer Zebulon Pike named the mountain Highest Peak in 1806, and the mountain was later commonly known as Pikes Highest Peak. American explorer Stephen Harriman Long named the mountain James Peak in honor of Edwin James who climbed to the summit in 1820, the mountain was later renamed Pikes Peak in honor of Pike. The name was simplified to Pikes Peak by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1890, Pikes Peak is composed of a characteristic pink granite called Pikes Peak granite. The color is due to an amount of potassium feldspar. Through the process of uplifting, the hardened rock pushed through the Earths crust and created a dome-like mountain, years of erosion and weathering removed the soil and rock leaving the exposed mountain. Soils on Pikes Peak are classified as Cirque Land above timberline, the first Europeans to discover Pikes Peak were the Spanish in the 1700s. The first American sighting is credited to members of the Pike expedition. After a failed attempt to climb to the top in November 1806, Pike wrote in his journal. here we found the snow middle deep, the thermometer which stood at 9° above 0 at the foot of the mountain, here fell to 4° below 0. The first European-American to climb the peak came 14 years after Pike, Edwin James, a young student who had just graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, signed on as the relief botanist for Stephen Harriman Longs expedition after the first botanist had died. The expedition explored the South Platte River up as far as present-day Denver, then turned south, James and two other men left the expedition, camped on the plains, and climbed the peak in two days, encountering little difficulty. Along the way, James was the first to describe the blue columbine, Gold was discovered in the area of present-day Denver in 1858, and newspapers referred to the gold-mining area as Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak or Bust became the slogan of the Colorado Gold Rush and this was more due to Pikes Peaks visibility to gold seekers traveling west across the plains than any actual significant gold find anywhere near Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak
–
Pikes Peak, Colorado
Pikes Peak
–
Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway train rounding Windy Point, around 1900.
Pikes Peak
–
The summit of Pikes Peak in 1901
Pikes Peak
–
The sign at the summit
8.
Colorado
–
Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,540,545 on July 1,2016, the state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28,1861, Colorado is nicknamed the Centennial State because it became a state in the same year as the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is noted for its landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, residents of the state are properly known as Coloradans, although the term Coloradoan has been used archaically and lives on in the title of Fort Collins newspaper, the Coloradoan. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are the states which have boundaries defined solely by lines of latitude and longitude. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado, Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than one half of the area of Colorado is flat, East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from roughly 3,350 to 7,500 feet. The Colorado plains were mostly prairies, but they have many patches of forests, buttes. Eastern Colorado is presently covered in farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages. Precipitation is fair, averaging from 15 to 25 inches annually, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans, and oats are all typical crops, and most of the villages and towns in this region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from the South Platte, the Arkansas River, and a few other streams, however, heavy use of ground water from wells for irrigation has caused underground water reserves to decline. As well as agriculture, eastern Colorado hosts considerable livestock, such as cattle ranches. Roughly 70% of Colorados population resides along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado. The Front Range includes Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and other townships, on the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction, Durango, and Montrose
Colorado
–
The
Elk Mountains near
Aspen, Colorado
Colorado
–
Flag
Colorado
–
Mountains and lakes near
Breckenridge, Colorado
Colorado
–
A view of the arid high plains in Southeastern Colorado
9.
Quartz
–
Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earths continental crust, behind feldspar. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones, since antiquity, varieties of quartz have been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings, especially in Eurasia. The word quartz is derived from the German word Quarz and its Middle High German ancestor twarc, the Ancient Greeks referred to quartz as κρύσταλλος derived from the Ancient Greek κρύος meaning icy cold, because some philosophers apparently believed the mineral to be a form of supercooled ice. Today, the rock crystal is sometimes used as an alternative name for the purest form of quartz. Quartz belongs to the crystal system. The ideal crystal shape is a six-sided prism terminating with six-sided pyramids at each end, well-formed crystals typically form in a bed that has unconstrained growth into a void, usually the crystals are attached at the other end to a matrix and only one termination pyramid is present. However, doubly terminated crystals do occur where they develop freely without attachment, a quartz geode is such a situation where the void is approximately spherical in shape, lined with a bed of crystals pointing inward. α-quartz crystallizes in the crystal system, space group P3121 and P3221 respectively. β-quartz belongs to the system, space group P6222 and P6422. These space groups are truly chiral, both α-quartz and β-quartz are examples of chiral crystal structures composed of achiral building blocks. The transformation between α- and β-quartz only involves a comparatively minor rotation of the tetrahedra with respect to one another, although many of the varietal names historically arose from the color of the mineral, current scientific naming schemes refer primarily to the microstructure of the mineral. Color is an identifier for the cryptocrystalline minerals, although it is a primary identifier for the macrocrystalline varieties. Pure quartz, traditionally called rock crystal or clear quartz, is colorless and transparent or translucent, common colored varieties include citrine, rose quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, milky quartz, and others. The most important distinction between types of quartz is that of macrocrystalline and the microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline varieties, the cryptocrystalline varieties are either translucent or mostly opaque, while the transparent varieties tend to be macrocrystalline. Chalcedony is a form of silica consisting of fine intergrowths of both quartz, and its monoclinic polymorph moganite. Other opaque gemstone varieties of quartz, or mixed rocks including quartz, often including contrasting bands or patterns of color, are agate, carnelian or sard, onyx, heliotrope, amethyst is a form of quartz that ranges from a bright to dark or dull purple color. The worlds largest deposits of amethysts can be found in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Russia, France, Namibia, sometimes amethyst and citrine are found growing in the same crystal. It is then referred to as ametrine, an amethyst is formed when there is iron in the area where it was formed
Quartz
–
Quartz
crystal cluster from
Tibet
Quartz
–
Clear rock crystals on a white base
Quartz
–
Amethyst crystals on matrix
Quartz
–
Citrine from Brazil
10.
Orthoclase
–
Orthoclase, or orthoclase feldspar, is an important tectosilicate mineral which forms igneous rock. The name is from the Ancient Greek for straight fracture, because its two planes are at right angles to each other. It is a type of potassium feldspar, also known as K-feldspar, the gem known as moonstone is largely composed of orthoclase. Orthoclase is a constituent of most granites and other felsic igneous rocks and often forms huge crystals. Typically, the pure potassium endmember of orthoclase forms a solution with albite. While slowly cooling within the earth, sodium-rich albite lamellae form by exsolution, the resulting intergrowth of the two feldspars is called perthite. The higher-temperature polymorph of KAlSi3O8 is sanidine, sanidine is common in rapidly cooled volcanic rocks such as obsidian and felsic pyroclastic rocks, and is notably found in trachytes of the Drachenfels, Germany. The lower-temperature polymorph of KAlSi3O8 is microcline, adularia is a low temperature form of either microcline or orthoclase originally reported from the low temperature hydrothermal deposits in the Adula Alps of Switzerland. It was first described by Ermenegildo Pini in 1781, the optical effect of adularescence in moonstone is typically due to adularia. The largest documented crystal of orthoclase was found in Ural mountains. It measured ~10×10×0.4 m and weighed ~100 tons, together with the other potassium feldspars, orthoclase is a common raw material for the manufacture of some glasses and some ceramics such as porcelain, and as a constituent of scouring powder. Some intergrowths of orthoclase and albite have an attractive pale luster and are called moonstone when used in jewellery, most moonstones are translucent and white, although grey and peach-colored varieties also occur. In gemology, their luster is called adularescence and is described as creamy or silvery white with a billowy quality. It is the gem of Florida. Orthoclase is one of the ten defining minerals of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, nASAs Curiosity Rover discovery of high levels of orthoclase in Martian sandstones suggested that some Martian rocks may have experienced complex geological processing, such as repeated melting
Orthoclase
–
Orthoclase
Orthoclase
–
Adularia with
pyrite incrustations.
11.
Albite
–
Albite is a plagioclase feldspar mineral. It is the sodium endmember of the solid solution series. As such it represents a plagioclase with less than 10% anorthite content, the pure albite endmember has the formula NaAlSi3O8. Its color is pure white, hence its name from Latin albus. It is a constituent in felsic rocks. Albite crystallizes with triclinic pinacoidal forms and its specific gravity is about 2.62 and it has a Mohs hardness of 6 -6.5. Albite almost always exhibits crystal twinning often as minute parallel striations on the crystal face, Albite often occurs as fine parallel segregations alternating with pink microcline in perthite as a result of exolution on cooling. There are two variants of albite, which are referred to as low albite and high albite, the latter is known as analbite. Although both variants are triclinic, they differ in the volume of their cell, which is slightly larger for the high form. The high form can be produced from the low form by heating above c.750 °C, upon further heating to more than c.1050 °C the crystal symmetry changes from triclinic to monoclinic, this variant is also known as monalbite. It occurs in granitic and pegmatite masses, in hydrothermal vein deposits. It was first reported in 1815 for an occurrence in Finnbo, Falun, Dalarna and it is used as a gemstone. Mineral galleries This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Albite
–
Albite from Crete, scale = 1 in.
Albite
–
Albite
12.
Granite
–
Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be white, pink, or gray in color. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. By definition, granite is a rock with at least 20% quartz. The term granitic means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks, petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite, Granite is nearly always massive, hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout human history, and more recently as a construction stone. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6 •1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C, it is reduced in the presence of water. Granite has poor primary permeability, but strong secondary permeability, true granite according to modern petrologic convention contains both plagioclase and alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite, when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite, pyroxene and amphibole are common in tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or two-mica granite, two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age, it is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin veneer of the continents. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors and rounded massifs, granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite often occurs as small, less than 100 km² stock masses
Granite
–
Granite containing
potassium feldspar,
plagioclase feldspar,
quartz, and
biotite and/or
amphibole
Granite
–
Close-up of granite exposed in
Chennai,
India
Granite
–
The
Cheesewring, a granite
tor
Granite
–
A granite peak at
Huangshan, China
13.
Pegmatite
–
A pegmatite is a holocrystalline, intrusive igneous rock composed of interlocking phaneritic crystals usually larger than 2.5 cm in size, such rocks are referred to as pegmatitic. The word pegmatite derives from Homeric Greek, πεγνυμι, which means “to bind together”, in reference to the crystals of quartz. Most pegmatites are composed of quartz, feldspar and mica, having a similar composition as granite. Crystal size is the most striking feature of pegmatites, with usually over 5 cm in size. Individual crystals over 10 metres long have been found, and many of the worlds largest crystals were found within pegmatites and these include, spodumene, microcline, beryl, and tourmaline. Similarly, crystal texture and form within pegmatitic rock may be taken to extreme size, perthite feldspar within a pegmatite often shows gigantic perthitic texture visible to the naked eye. The single feature that is diagnostic to all pegmatites is their large size crystal components, Pegmatite bodies are usually of minor size compared to typical intrusive rock bodies. Pegmatite body size is on the order of magnitude of one to a few hundred meters, compared to typical igneous rocks they are rather inhomogeneous and may show zones with different mineral assemblages. Crystal size and mineral assemblages are usually oriented parallel to the rock or even concentric for pegmatite lenses. Crystal growth rates in pegmatite must be slow to allow gigantic crystals to grow within the confines and pressures of the Earths crust. The mineralogy of a pegmatite is in most cases dominated by some form of feldspar, often with mica and usually with quartz and this is because of the difficulty in counting and sampling mineral grains in a rock which may have crystals from centimeters to meters across. Garnet, commonly almandine or spessartine, is a common mineral within pegmatites intruding mafic, pegmatites associated with granitic domes within the Archaean Yilgarn Craton intruding ultramafic and mafic rocks contain red, orange and brown almandine garnet. Syenite pegmatites are quartz depleted and contain large feldspathoid crystals instead, Pegmatite is difficult to sample representatively due to the large size of the constituent mineral crystals. Often, bulk samples of some 50–60 kg of rock must be crushed to obtain a meaningful, hence, pegmatite is often characterised by sampling the individual minerals which comprise the pegmatite, and comparisons are made according to mineral chemistry. Occasionally, enrichment in the trace elements will result in crystallisation of equally unusual and rare minerals such as beryl, tourmaline, columbite, tantalite, zinnwaldite. Pegmatites are the source of lithium either as spodumene, lithiophyllite or usually from lepidolite. The primary source for caesium is pollucite, a mineral from a zoned pegmatite, the majority of the worlds beryllium is sourced from non-gem quality beryl within pegmatite. Tantalum, niobium, rare-earth elements are sourced from a few pegmatites worldwide, bismuth, molybdenum and tin have been won from pegmatite, but this is not yet an important source of these metals
Pegmatite
–
Proterozoic Pegmatite swarm in the headwall of the
cirque of a small
mountain glacier, northeastern
Baffin Island,
Nunavut.
Pegmatite
–
Pegmatite with blue
corundum crystals
Pegmatite
–
Pegmatite containing lepidolite, tourmaline, and quartz from the White Elephant Mine in the
Black Hills,
South Dakota
Pegmatite
–
Pegmatitic granite, Rock Creek Canyon, eastern
Sierra Nevada, California. Note pink potassium feldspars and cumulate-filled chamber.
14.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
15.
Amelia, Virginia
–
Amelia Court House is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Amelia County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 1,099, Amelia Court House is also known as Amelia Courthouse and Amelia. The Amelia area is known for its supply of minerals, including the nations best source of Amazonite found at the Morefield mine, Amelia Court House is located on one of the principal Confederate railroads of the 1860s. After General Robert E. Lee retreated from Petersburg, in 1865 and those supplies never came, instead a train came through carrying government documents. Lee had been to Amelia prior to the Civil War to stay, with his family, the last major engagement of Lees army with Union forces occurred April 6,1865 just on the border of Amelia County in a place called Saylers Creek. Lee would surrender in Appomattox Court House on April 9,1865, Amelias court clerks offices still contain records prior to the Civil War, unlike other unfortunate courthouses. The Union forces were in such a hurry to catch up to Lees Army of Northern Virginia that they did not take the time to ensure that the office would burn. The iron shutters and brick construction meant that torches lit to destroy the building went out without causing damage to the buildings contents, a countywide festival called Amelia Day is held each May on the Saturday before Mothers Day. This festival started in the 1980s to celebrate Amelias birthday, vendors, local clubs and citizens come out to enjoy music, dancing and socializing. At the first Amelia Day residents came out to sign a long roll that, the Amelia Day festival had to be canceled in 2003 when the courthouse green was struck by an F1 tornado on Friday, May 8, the day before the festival. This tornado destroyed most of the courthouse green trees and thus the area where the festival was to be held. Amelia is no stranger to tornadoes, a small Virginia tornado alley exists in Central Virginia and Amelia County itself has had numerous tornado touchdowns, tornadoes of note include the April 30,1924, tornado that passed east of the courthouse area, killing one and injuring seven others. This tornado went from Jetersville to Chula, a tornado also hit Amelia County on October 13,1983, one of a family of tornadoes that affected much of Central and Northern Virginia. Other stronger tornadoes have affected the county, especially to the east, the climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Amelia Courthouse has a subtropical climate. Toby Wing, early 20th Century actress, was born in Amelia Courthouse
Amelia, Virginia
–
County Courthouse in Amelia
16.
Madagascar
–
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west
Madagascar
–
The terraced paddy fields of the
central highlands of Madagascar (left) give way to tropical rainforest along the eastern coast (center) bordered by the shores of the
Indian Ocean (right).
Madagascar
–
Flag
Madagascar
Madagascar
–
The grassy plains that dominate the western landscape are dotted with stony massifs (left), patches of deciduous forest, and
baobab trees (center), while the south is characterized by desert and
spiny forests (right).
17.
Brazil
–
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
Brazil
–
Megaliths in the
Solstice Archaeological Park, in
Amapá, erected between 500 and 2000 years ago, probably to carry out
astronomical observations.
Brazil
–
Flag
Brazil
–
Representation of the landing of
Pedro Álvares Cabral in
Porto Seguro, 1500.
Brazil
–
Painting showing the arrest of
Tiradentes; he was sentenced to death for his involvement in the best known
movement for independence in Colonial Brazil.
18.
Green
–
Green is the color between blue and yellow on the spectrum of visible light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of roughly 495–570 nm, the modern English word green comes from the Middle English and Anglo-Saxon word grene, from the same Germanic root as the words grass and grow. It is the color of living grass and leaves and as a result is the color most associated with springtime, growth, by far the largest contributor to green in nature is chlorophyll, the chemical by which plants photosynthesize and convert sunlight into chemical energy. Many creatures have adapted to their environments by taking on a green hue themselves as camouflage. Several minerals have a color, including the emerald, which is colored green by its chromium content. In surveys made in Europe and the United States, green is the color most commonly associated with nature, life, health, youth, spring, hope and envy. In Europe and the U. S. green is associated with death, sickness, or the devil. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when the color of clothing showed the social status, green was worn by merchants, bankers. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci wears green, showing she is not from a noble family, Green is also the traditional color of safety and permission, a green light means go ahead, a green card permits permanent residence in the United States. It is the most important color in Islam and it was the color of the banner of Muhammad, and is found in the flags of nearly all Islamic countries, and represents the lush vegetation of Paradise. It is also associated with the culture of Gaelic Ireland. Because of its association with nature, it is the color of the environmental movement, political groups advocating environmental protection and social justice describe themselves as part of the Green movement, some naming themselves Green parties. This has led to campaigns in advertising, as companies have sold green, or environmentally friendly. The word green comes from the Middle English and Old English word grene, which, like the German word grün, has the same root as the words grass and grow. It is from a Common Germanic *gronja-, which is reflected in Old Norse grænn, Old High German gruoni, ultimately from a PIE root *ghre- to grow. The first recorded use of the word as a term in Old English dates to ca. Latin with viridis also has a genuine and widely used term for green, related to virere to grow and ver spring, it gave rise to words in several Romance languages, French vert, Italian verde. Likewise the Slavic languages with zelenъ, Ancient Greek also had a term for yellowish, pale green – χλωρός, chloros, cognate with χλοερός verdant and χλόη the green of new growth
Green
–
The word green has the same Germanic root as the words for grass and grow.
Green
–
Green
Green
–
Emerald green. The
Gachala Emerald from the
National Museum of Natural History, Washington.
Green
–
Jade. A jade dragon from the
Han Dynasty, China. Jade can be many different shades of green.
19.
Gemstone
–
A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks or organic materials that are not minerals are used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone, apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms. A gem maker is called a lapidary or gemcutter, a worker is a diamantaire. The carvings of Carl Fabergé are significant works in this tradition, the traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious, similar distinctions are made in other cultures. In modern usage the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire, other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone, in modern times gemstones are identified by gemologists, who describe gems and their characteristics using technical terminology specific to the field of gemology. The first characteristic a gemologist uses to identify a gemstone is its chemical composition, for example, diamonds are made of carbon and rubies of aluminium oxide. Next, many gems are crystals which are classified by their crystal system such as cubic or trigonal or monoclinic, another term used is habit, the form the gem is usually found in. For example, diamonds, which have a crystal system, are often found as octahedrons. Gemstones are classified into different groups, species, and varieties, for example, ruby is the red variety of the species corundum, while any other color of corundum is considered sapphire. Other examples are the Emerald, aquamarine, red beryl, goshenite, heliodor, and morganite, gems are characterized in terms of refractive index, dispersion, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and luster. They may exhibit pleochroism or double refraction and they may have luminescence and a distinctive absorption spectrum. Material or flaws within a stone may be present as inclusions, gemstones may also be classified in terms of their water. This is a grading of the gems luster, transparency. Very transparent gems are considered first water, while second or third water gems are those of a lesser transparency, there is no universally accepted grading system for gemstones. Diamonds are graded using a system developed by the Gemological Institute of America in the early 1950s, historically, all gemstones were graded using the naked eye
Gemstone
–
A selection of gemstone pebbles made by tumbling rough rock with abrasive grit, in a rotating drum. The biggest pebble here is 40 mm long (1.6 inches).
Gemstone
–
Group of precious and semiprecious stones —both uncut and faceted— including (clockwise from top left)
diamond, uncut synthetic
sapphire,
ruby, uncut
emerald, and
amethyst crystal cluster.
Gemstone
–
Spanish emerald and gold pendant at
Victoria and Albert Museum
Gemstone
–
Enamelled gold, amethyst and pearl pendant, about 1880, Pasquale Novissimo (1844–1914), V&A Museum number M.36-1928
20.
Copper
–
Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
Copper
–
Native copper (~4 cm in size)
Copper
–
A copper disc (99.95% pure) made by
continuous casting;
etched to reveal
crystallites.
Copper
–
Copper just above its melting point keeps its pink luster color when enough light outshines the orange
incandescence color.
Copper
–
Unoxidized copper wire (left) and oxidized copper wire (right).
21.
Lead
–
Lead is a chemical element with atomic number 82 and symbol Pb. When freshly cut, it is bluish-white, it tarnishes to a dull gray upon exposure to air and it is a soft, malleable, and heavy metal with a density exceeding that of most common materials. Lead has the second-highest atomic number of the stable elements. Lead is a relatively unreactive post-transition metal and its weak metallic character is illustrated by its amphoteric nature and tendency to form covalent bonds. Compounds of lead are found in the +2 oxidation state. Exceptions are mostly limited to organolead compounds, like the lighter members of the group, lead exhibits a tendency to bond to itself, it can form chains, rings, and polyhedral structures. Lead is easily extracted from its ores and was known to people in Western Asia. A principal ore of lead, galena, often bears silver, Lead production declined after the fall of Rome and did not reach comparable levels again until the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays, global production of lead is about ten million tonnes annually, Lead has several properties that make it useful, high density, low melting point, ductility, and relative inertness to oxidation. In the late 19th century, lead was recognized as poisonous, Lead is a neurotoxin that accumulates in soft tissues and bones, damaging the nervous system and causing brain disorders and, in mammals, blood disorders. A lead atom has 82 electrons, arranged in a configuration of 4f145d106s26p2. The combined first and second ionization energies—the total energy required to remove the two 6p electrons—is close to that of tin, leads upper neighbor in group 14. This is unusual since ionization energies generally fall going down a group as an elements outer electrons become more distant from the nucleus, the similarity is caused by the lanthanide contraction—the decrease in element radii from lanthanum to lutetium, and the relatively small radii of the elements after hafnium. The contraction is due to shielding of the nucleus by the lanthanide 4f electrons. The combined first four ionization energies of lead exceed those of tin, for this reason lead, unlike tin, mostly forms compounds in which it has an oxidation state of +2, rather than +4. Relativistic effects, which become particularly prominent at the bottom of the periodic table, as a result, the 6s electrons of lead become reluctant to participate in bonding, a phenomenon called the inert pair effect. A related outcome is that the distance between nearest atoms in crystalline lead is unusually long, the lighter group 14 elements form stable or metastable allotropes having the tetrahedrally coordinated and covalently bonded diamond cubic structure. The energy levels of their outer s- and p-orbitals are close enough to allow mixing into four hybrid sp3 orbitals
Lead
–
Lead, 82 Pb
Lead
–
A sample of freshly solidified lead (from molten state)
Lead
–
World lead production peaking in the
Roman period and the rising
Industrial Revolution
Lead
–
Lead
ingots from
Roman Britain on display at the
Wells and Mendip Museum
22.
Konso special woreda
–
Konso is one of the woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of Ethiopia. Because Konso is not part of any Zone in the SNNPR, it is considered a Special woreda and this woreda is named after the Konso people. The Sagan River, which flows south then west to join the Weito, defines part of the boundary with Burji. The administrative center is Karati, other towns in Konso include Fasha, rivers in this woreda include the Talpeena, a tributary of the Sagan. The native Konso traditionally practice a distinct and sustainable form of agriculture involves the building and maintaining of stone terraces. A central feature of their fields is the endemic tree crop, the main crop is sorghum, along with some root crops and cotton. According to a 2004 report, Konso had 178 kilometers of roads and 81 kilometers of dry-weather roads. The Central Statistical Agency reported that five tons of coffee were produced in this woreda in the ending in 2005, based on inspection records from the Ethiopian Coffee. This represents less than 0. 1% of the SNNPRs output, the woreda has had a number of boundary disputes with adjacent administrative units. According to Sarah Vaughan, the most serious of these concerns Teltele district, the 1996 UNDP-EUE report quotes an earlier report prepared in 1993, which had stated that one peculiarity of the Konso area is its frequent earthquakes. A recent strong tremor sent panic around the villages, some hillside villages have slid as a result. Another danger is fire, in the crowded, stockaded villages full of wooden structures, the 1996 report however concludes, No earthquakes occurred after 1993. Local government officials in Konso denied elected officials of the opposition Konso Peoples Democratic Union the offices to which they had been elected in 2001 for several months, over the next few years, the KPDU was subjected to a campaign of harassment. In July of the year, ruling party supporters, backed by local militia, closed the KPDU branch office in Karati and imprisoned party leaders Tesfaye Korra. Activists of the party then looted the offices and damaged the roof. Then on 12 October, government militias acting on the authority of local officials arrested the chairman of the KPDU, Shako Otto Kora, in Karati, the local officials accused him of disturbing development activities for visiting one of his partys branch offices that had been closed. The Sudan Times reported that on 14 May 2008 continuing conflict between the Konso and Borena Oromo left 36 people dead and forced more than 5,000 inhabitants to flee their homes. Among the dead,35 of them belong to Konso tribes Areke Geyto, the refugees were sheltered in the Aba-Roba, Kashale, Nalaya Segen and Gesergo kebeles
Konso special woreda
–
A map of the regions and zones of Ethiopia.
Konso special woreda
–
Amazonite mineral specimen from Konso. Size: 4.6 x 4.5 x 4.3 cm. Konso amazonites are truly superb, easily competing with the classics from
Pike's Peak,
Colorado, USA.
Konso special woreda
–
Men and Boys Sleeping Hut, Konso Ethiopia
23.
Florissant, Colorado
–
Florissant is a census-designated place and a U. S. Post Office in Teller County, Colorado, United States, the population as of the 2010 Census was 104. Florissant, Colorado, was named after Florissant, Missouri, the hometown of Judge James Castello, the word florissant is the gerund of the French verb fleurir, which roughly means to flourish, to flower, or to blossom. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is located south of Florissant. The Florissant Post Office has the ZIP Code 80816, Florissant is just east of the starting point of the Hayman fire, which as of 2006, is the largest fire in Colorados history. Florissant is served by the Florissant Fire Protection District, the District consists of 2 Fire Stations,3 Engines,2 Tenders,3 Rescue Trucks, and a Mule 4wd off road vehicle. Florissant has several subdivisions, including Colorado Mountain Estates, Druid Hills, Florissant Heights, Indian Creek, Wilson Lakes, Valley Hi, examples of this include the addition of a new library, offering multimedia opportunities, fast broadband, computer access, and wireless access. Florissant is located at 38°56′46″N 105°17′23″W between Divide, Colorado and Lake George, Colorado. PikesPeakHSMuseum. org http, //rampart. colibraries. org/about-us/
Florissant, Colorado
–
Panorama of Florissant
Florissant, Colorado
–
Florissant Heritage Museum
24.
Public domain
–
The term public domain has two senses of meaning. Anything published is out in the domain in the sense that it is available to the public. Once published, news and information in books is in the public domain, in the sense of intellectual property, works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. Examples for works not covered by copyright which are therefore in the domain, are the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes. Examples for works actively dedicated into public domain by their authors are reference implementations of algorithms, NIHs ImageJ. The term is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, as rights are country-based and vary, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on a basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required. Although the term public domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined many things that cannot be privately owned as res nullius, res communes, res publicae and res universitatis. The term res nullius was defined as not yet appropriated. The term res communes was defined as things that could be enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight. The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, when the first early copyright law was first established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the eighteenth century, instead of public domain they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law. The phrase fall in the domain can be traced to mid-nineteenth century France to describe the end of copyright term. In this historical context Paul Torremans describes copyright as a coral reef of private right jutting up from the ocean of the public domain. Because copyright law is different from country to country, Pamela Samuelson has described the public domain as being different sizes at different times in different countries. According to James Boyle this definition underlines common usage of the public domain and equates the public domain to public property. However, the usage of the public domain can be more granular. Such a definition regards work in copyright as private property subject to fair use rights, the materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all living to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival
Public domain
–
Newton's own copy of his
Principia, with hand-written corrections for the second edition
Public domain
–
L.H.O.O.Q. (1919). Derivative work by the
Dadaist Marcel Duchamp based on the
Mona Lisa.
25.
Wayback Machine
–
The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
Wayback Machine
–
Wayback Machine
26.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
–
A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Amazon-stone". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 791.
