1.
The Petrified Forest
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The Petrified Forest is a 1936 American film, directed by Archie Mayo starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart. A precursor of film noir, it was adapted from Robert E. Sherwoods stage play of the same name, the screenplay was written by Delmer Daves and Charles Kenyon, and adaptations were later performed on radio and television as well. She now sends poetry to Gabrielle, who dreams of moving to Bourges, Alan tells his story—how he wrote one novel, then lived in France for eight years with his publishers wife, trying to write another—and Gabrielle is instantly smitten with him. Gabrielle shows Alan her paintings—the first time she has them to anyone—and reads him a favorite François Villon poem. Boze Hertzlinger, a beefy diner employee who has wooed Gabrielle in vain, grows jealous of Alan, Duke and his gang seize the Chisholms car and drive to the diner, where Duke has arranged to rendezvous with his girlfriend, Doris, on their way to Mexico. Alan, the Chisholms, and their chauffeur soon make their way back to the diner as well, Alan, indifferent to the hostage situation, engages Duke in lively conversation and toasts him as the last great apostle of rugged individualism. Boze snatches a rifle and gets the drop on Duke, but during a momentary distraction Duke draws his pistol and shoots Boze in the hand, Duke learns that Doris has been captured, and has revealed their rendezvous location to the police. As police and federal agents converge on the diner, Duke prepares to flee, announcing that he will take Mr. then he asks Duke to kill him, so that Gabrielle can use the insurance money to realize her dream of moving to France. Duke obliges, then leaves with his human shields, Alan dies in Gabrielles arms, secure in the knowledge that she, unlike the rest, will escape her dead-end existence to pursue her dreams. Bogart, who won the role in part because of his physical resemblance to Dillinger, studied film footage of the gangster. The film made Bogart a star, and he remained grateful to Howard for the rest of his life. In 1952, Bogart and Lauren Bacall named their daughter Leslie Howard Bogart in honor of Howard, in 1948, Robinson portrayed a character very similar to Duke—a famous gangster holding a disparate group of people hostage in a Florida hotel—in Key Largo. That films hero was played by Bogart, in his penultimate film, The Desperate Hours, Bogart played another gangster holding a suburban family hostage. He described that character as Duke Mantee grown up, another radio adaptation starring Joan Bennett, Tyrone Power, and Bogart aired on The Screen Guild Theater on January 7,1940. In 1955, a television version was performed as an installment of Producers Showcase, a weekly dramatic anthology, featuring Bogart as Mantee, Henry Fonda as Alan. Jack Klugman, Richard Jaeckel, and Jack Warden played supporting roles, in the late 1990s Bacall donated the only known kinescope of the 1955 performance to the Museum Of Television & Radio, where it remains archived for viewing in New York City and Los Angeles. In 1972, a take-off of the film entitled The Putrified Forest was seen as a sketch on The Carol Burnett Show, featuring Steve Lawrence, the Warner Brothers sound stage on which the movie was filmed is currently the home of Conan OBriens TBS television program. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists,2003, AFIs 100 Years
2.
Triassic
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The Triassic is a geologic period and system which spans 50.9 million years from the end of the Permian Period 252.17 million years ago, to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.3 Mya. The Triassic is the first period of the Mesozoic Era, both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events. Therapsids and archosaurs were the terrestrial vertebrates during this time. A specialized subgroup of archosaurs, called dinosaurs, first appeared in the Late Triassic, the vast supercontinent of Pangaea existed until the mid-Triassic, after which it began to gradually rift into two separate landmasses, Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south. The global climate during the Triassic was mostly hot and dry, however, the climate shifted and became more humid as Pangaea began to drift apart. The end of the period was marked by yet another mass extinction, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. The Triassic is usually separated into Early, Middle, and Late Triassic Epochs, from the east, along the equator, the Tethys sea penetrated Pangaea, causing the Paleo-Tethys Ocean to be closed. Later in the mid-Triassic a similar sea penetrated along the equator from the west, the remaining shores were surrounded by the world-ocean known as Panthalassa. All the deep-ocean sediments laid down during the Triassic have disappeared through subduction of oceanic plates, thus, the supercontinent Pangaea was rifting during the Triassic—especially late in that period—but had not yet separated. In North America, for example, marine deposits are limited to a few exposures in the west, thus Triassic stratigraphy is mostly based on organisms that lived in lagoons and hypersaline environments, such as Estheria crustaceans. At the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, Africa was joined with Earths other continents in Pangaea, Africa shared the supercontinents relatively uniform fauna which was dominated by theropods, prosauropods and primitive ornithischians by the close of the Triassic period. Late Triassic fossils are found throughout Africa, but are common in the south than north. The time boundary separating the Permian and Triassic marks the advent of an event with global impact. At Paleorrota geopark, located in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in these formations, one of the earliest dinosaurs, Staurikosaurus, as well as the mammal ancestors Brasilitherium and Brasilodon have been discovered. The Triassic continental interior climate was hot and dry, so that typical deposits are red bed sandstones and evaporites. Pangaeas large size limited the effect of the global ocean, its continental climate was highly seasonal, with very hot summers. The strong contrast between the Pangea supercontinent and the global ocean triggered intense cross-equatorial monsoons, the best studied of such episodes of humid climate, and probably the most intense and widespread, was the Carnian Pluvial Event. On land, the vascular plants included the lycophytes, the dominant cycadophytes, ginkgophyta, ferns, horsetails
3.
Petrified Forest National Park
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Petrified Forest National Park is a United States national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its deposits of petrified wood, the fee area of the park covers about 230 square miles, encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded. The site, the part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906. The park received 643,274 recreational visitors in 2016, representing a decrease of 19% from the prior year, typical visitor activities include sightseeing, photography, hiking, and backpacking. Averaging about 5,400 feet in elevation, the park has a dry climate with temperatures that vary from summer highs of about 100 °F to winter lows well below freezing. More than 400 species of plants, dominated by such as bunchgrass, blue grama. About half of the park is designated wilderness, the Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic Period, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the parks fossils since the early 20th century, the parks earliest human inhabitants arrived at least 8,000 years ago. By about 2,000 years ago, they were growing corn in the area, later inhabitants built above-ground dwellings called pueblos. Although a changing climate caused the last of the parks pueblos to be abandoned by about 1400 CE, more than 600 archeological sites, including petroglyphs, have been discovered in the park. Later, roads and a railway followed similar routes and gave rise to tourism and, before the park was protected, theft of petrified wood remains a problem in the 21st century. Petrified Forest National Park straddles the border between Apache County and Navajo County in northeastern Arizona, I-40, former U. S. Route 66, the BNSF Railway, and the Puerco River bisect the park generally east–west along a similar route. Adamana, a ghost town, is about 1 mile west of the park along the BNSF tracks, Holbrook, about 26 miles west of park headquarters along I-40, is the nearest city. Bisecting the park north–south is Park Road, which runs between I-40 near park headquarters on the north and U. S. Route 180 on the south, Historic Highway 180, an earlier alignment of the modern route, crosses the southern edge of the park. Like Route 66, it has deteriorated and is closed, many unpaved maintenance roads, closed to the public, intersect Park Road at various points
4.
Acacia
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Acacia, commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs, lianas and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australia, controversy erupted in the early 2000s when it became evident that the genus as it stood was not monophyletic, and that several divergent lineages needed to be placed in separate genera. It turned out that one lineage comprising over 900 species mainly native to Australia was not closely related to the mainly African lineage that contained A. nilotica—the first and this meant that the Australian lineage would need to be renamed. Botanist Les Pedley named this group Racosperma, which was inconsistently adopted and this was officially adopted, but many botanists from Africa and elsewhere disagreed that this was necessary. A number of species have been introduced to parts of the world. The heterogeneous group varies considerably in habit, from mat-like subshrubs to canopy trees in forest, the genus was first described from Africa by C. F. P. von Martius in 1829. Several hundred combinations in Acacia were published by Pedley in 2003, the genus of 981 species, Acacia s. l. in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae is monophyletic. All but 10 of its species are native to Australia, where it constitutes the largest plant genus, following a controversial decision to choose a new type for Acacia in 2005, the Australian component of Acacia s. l. now retains the name Acacia. At the 2011 International Botanical Congress held in Melbourne, the decision to use the name Acacia, other Acacia s. l. taxa continue to be called Acacia by those who choose to consider the entire group as one genus. Australian species of the genus Paraserianthes s. l. are deemed its closest relatives, the origin of wattle may be an Old Teutonic word meaning to weave. From around 700 A. D. watul was used in Old English to refer to the branches and sticks which formed fences, walls. Since about 1810 it refers to the Australian legumes that provide these branches, acacias in Australia probably evolved their fire resistance about 20 million years ago when fossilised charcoal deposits show a large increase, indicating that fire was a factor even then. With no major mountain ranges or rivers to prevent their spread and they began to form dry, open forests with species of the genera Casuarina, Eucalyptus and Callitris. The southernmost species in the genus are Acacia dealbata, Acacia longifolia, Acacia mearnsii and they are present in all terrestrial habitats, including alpine settings, rainforests, woodlands, grasslands, coastal dunes and deserts. In drier woodlands or forest they are an important component of the understory, elsewhere they may be dominant, as in the Brigalow Belt, Myall woodlands and the eremaean Mulga woodlands. Several of its species bear vertically oriented phyllodes, which are green, broadened leaf petioles that function like leaf blades, some phyllodinous species have a colourful aril on the seed. A few species have rather than leaves. Aborigines of Australia have traditionally harvested the seeds of species, to be ground into flour
5.
Fossil
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Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, such a preserved specimen is called a fossil if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years. The observation that fossils were associated with certain rock strata led early geologists to recognize a geological timescale in the 19th century. The development of dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed geologists to determine the numerical or absolute age of the various strata. Like extant organisms, fossils vary in size from microscopic, even single bacterial cells one micrometer in diameter, to gigantic, such as dinosaurs, Fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as animal tracks or feces. These types of fossil are called trace fossils, as opposed to body fossils, finally, past life leaves some markers that cannot be seen but can be detected in the form of biochemical signals, these are known as chemofossils or biosignatures. The process of fossilization varies according to type and external conditions. Permineralization is a process of fossilization that occurs when an organism is buried, the empty spaces within an organism become filled with mineral-rich groundwater. Minerals precipitate from the groundwater, occupying the empty spaces and this process can occur in very small spaces, such as within the cell wall of a plant cell. Small scale permineralization can produce very detailed fossils, for permineralization to occur, the organism must become covered by sediment soon after death or soon after the initial decay process. The degree to which the remains are decayed when covered determines the later details of the fossil, some fossils consist only of skeletal remains or teeth, other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. This is a form of diagenesis, in some cases the original remains of the organism completely dissolve or are otherwise destroyed. The remaining organism-shaped hole in the rock is called an external mold, if this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is a cast. An endocast or internal mold is formed when sediments or minerals fill the cavity of an organism. This is a form of cast and mold formation. If the chemistry is right, the organism can act as a nucleus for the precipitation of minerals such as siderite, if this happens rapidly before significant decay to the organic tissue, very fine three-dimensional morphological detail can be preserved. Nodules from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois, USA, are among the best documented examples of such mineralization, replacement occurs when the shell, bone or other tissue is replaced with another mineral
6.
Terrestrial plant
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A terrestrial plant is a plant that grows on or in or from land. Other types of plants are aquatic, epiphytic and lithophytic, there are relatively few obligate submersed aquatic plants, but some examples include members of Hydrocharitaceae and Cabombaceae, Ceratophyllum, and Aldrovanda and most macroalgae. Most aquatic plants can, or prefer to, grow in the emersed form, many terrestrial plants can tolerate extended periods of inundation, and this is often part of the natural habitat of the plant where flooding is common. These plants tolerate extended periods of waterlogging around the roots and even complete submersion under flood waters, growth rates of helophytes decrease significantly during these periods of complete submersion and if water levels do not recede the plant will ultimately decline and perish. An epiphyte is a plant that grows non-parasitically upon another plant
7.
Tree
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In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. Trees are not a group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk. In looser senses, the palms, the tree ferns, bananas. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old, the tallest known tree, a coast redwood named Hyperion, stands 115.6 m high. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years and it is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world. A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk and this trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier, below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely, they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. Above ground, the divide into smaller branches and shoots. The shoots typically bear leaves, which light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the trees growth. Flowers and fruit may also be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones, others, such as tree ferns, trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues, trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests are one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world, trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of available for agriculture. Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always revered, with sacred groves in various cultures. Although tree is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, either botanically or in common language. In its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the form of an elongated stem, or trunk. Trees are also defined by height, with smaller plants from 0.5 to 10 m being called shrubs
8.
Permineralization
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Permineralization is a process of fossilization in which mineral deposits form internal casts of organisms. Carried by water, these minerals fill the spaces within organic tissue, because of the nature of the casts, permineralization is particularly useful in studies of the internal structures of organisms, usually of plants. Permineralization is a type of fossilization involving deposits of minerals within the cells of organisms, water from the ground, lakes, or oceans seeps into the pores of organic tissue and forms a crystal cast with deposited minerals. Crystals begin to form in the cell walls. This process continues on the surface of the walls until the central cavity of the cell. The cell walls themselves remain intact surrounding the crystals, in silicification, silicate minerals are released due to the weathering of rocks. The silica makes its way into a body of still water, eventually, the mineral laden water permeates the pores and cells of some dead organism, where it becomes a gel. Over time, the gel will dehydrate, forming a crystal structure that is an internal cast of the organism. This accounts for the found in permineralizations. Silicification reveals information about what type of environment the organism was likely to live in, most fossils that have been silicified are bacteria, algae, and other plant life. Silicification is the most common type of permineralization, carbonate mineralization involves the formation of coal balls. Coal balls are the fossilizations of many different plants and their tissues and they often occur in the presence of seawater or acidic peat. Coal balls are calcareous permineralizations of peat by calcium and magnesium carbonates, often spherical in shape and ranging from a few grams to several hundred kilograms in mass, coal balls are formed when water containing carbonate permeates the cells of an organism. This type of fossilization yields information about plant life in the Upper Carboniferous Period and this method involves the elements sulfur and iron. Organisms are pyritized when they are in marine sediments saturated with iron sulfides, as organic matter decays it releases sulfide which reacts with dissolved iron in the surrounding waters. Pyrite replaces carbonate shell material due to an undersaturation of carbonate in the surrounding waters, some plants are also pyritized when they are in a clay terrain, but to a lesser extent than in a marine environment. Some pyritized fossils include Precambrian microfossils, marine arthropods and plants, permineralized fossils preserve original cell structure, which can help scientists study an organism at the cellular level. These are three-dimensional fossils, which create permanent molds of internal structures, the mineralization process itself helps prevent tissue compaction, which distorts the actual size of organs
9.
Organic life
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Carbon is a key component of all known life on Earth. Complex molecules are made up of carbon bonded with other elements, especially oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen and it is also lightweight and relatively small in size, making it easier for enzymes to manipulate carbon molecules. It is often assumed in astrobiology that if life exists somewhere else in the universe, critics refer to this assumption as carbon chauvinism. What we normally think of as life is based on chains of atoms, with a few other atoms, such as nitrogen or phosphorus, per Stephen Hawking in a 2008 lecture. Carbon atoms bond readily to carbon atoms, this allows the building of arbitrarily long complex molecules. There are not many other elements which appear to be promising candidates for supporting life, for example. The most frequently suggested alternative is silicon, silicon is in the same group in the Periodic Table of elements, and has four valence bonds, and bonds to itself, generally in the form of crystal lattices rather than long chains. It is considerably more electropositive than carbon, silicon compounds do not readily recombine into different permutations in a manner that would plausibly support lifelike processes. In cinematic and literary fiction, when man-made machines cross from non-living to living. Since the advent of the microprocessor in the late 1960s, these machines are classed as silicon-based life. Another example of silicon-based life is the episode The Devil in the Dark from Star Trek, The Original Series, also in The X-Files episode Firewalker where silicon based organism was discovered in a volcano. School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
10.
Mineral
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A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline form and abiogenic in origin. A mineral has one specific chemical composition, whereas a rock can be an aggregate of different minerals or mineraloids, the study of minerals is called mineralogy. There are over 5,300 known mineral species, over 5,070 of these have been approved by the International Mineralogical Association, the silicate minerals compose over 90% of the Earths crust. The diversity and abundance of species is controlled by the Earths chemistry. Silicon and oxygen constitute approximately 75% of the Earths crust, which translates directly into the predominance of silicate minerals, minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various species, changes in the temperature, pressure, or bulk composition of a rock mass cause changes in its minerals. Minerals can be described by their various properties, which are related to their chemical structure. Common distinguishing characteristics include crystal structure and habit, hardness, lustre, diaphaneity, colour, streak, tenacity, cleavage, fracture, parting, more specific tests for describing minerals include magnetism, taste or smell, radioactivity and reaction to acid. Minerals are classified by key chemical constituents, the two dominant systems are the Dana classification and the Strunz classification, the silicate class of minerals is subdivided into six subclasses by the degree of polymerization in the chemical structure. All silicate minerals have a unit of a 4− silica tetrahedron—that is, a silicon cation coordinated by four oxygen anions. These tetrahedra can be polymerized to give the subclasses, orthosilicates, disilicates, cyclosilicates, inosilicates, phyllosilicates, other important mineral groups include the native elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, and phosphates. The first criterion means that a mineral has to form by a natural process, stability at room temperature, in the simplest sense, is synonymous to the mineral being solid. More specifically, a compound has to be stable or metastable at 25 °C, modern advances have included extensive study of liquid crystals, which also extensively involve mineralogy. Minerals are chemical compounds, and as such they can be described by fixed or a variable formula, many mineral groups and species are composed of a solid solution, pure substances are not usually found because of contamination or chemical substitution. Finally, the requirement of an ordered atomic arrangement is usually synonymous with crystallinity, however, crystals are also periodic, an ordered atomic arrangement gives rise to a variety of macroscopic physical properties, such as crystal form, hardness, and cleavage. There have been recent proposals to amend the definition to consider biogenic or amorphous substances as minerals. The formal definition of an approved by the IMA in 1995, A mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline. However, if geological processes were involved in the genesis of the compound, Mineral classification schemes and their definitions are evolving to match recent advances in mineral science
11.
Silicate
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A silicate is a compound containing an anionic silicon compound. The great majority of the silicates are oxides, but hexafluorosilicate, orthosilicate is the anion SiO4−4 or its compounds. Related to orthosilicate are families of anions with the formula 2n−, important members are the cyclic and single chain silicates n and the sheet-forming silicates n. Silicates constitute the majority of Earths crust, as well as the terrestrial planets, rocky moons. Sand, Portland cement, and thousands of minerals are examples of silicates, silicate compounds, including the minerals, consist of silicate anions whose charge is balanced by various cations. Myriad silicate anions can exist, and each can form compounds with many different cations, hence this class of compounds is very large. Both minerals and synthetic materials fit in this class, in the vast majority of silicates, including silicate minerals, the Si occupies a tetrahedral environment, being surrounded by 4 oxygen centres. In these structures, the bonds to silicon conform to the octet rule. These tetrahedra sometimes occur as isolated SiO4−4 centres, but most commonly, commonly the silicate anions are chains, double chains, sheets, and three-dimensional frameworks. All these such species have negligible solubility in water at normal conditions, silicates are well characterized as solids, but are less commonly observed in solution. The anion SiO4−4 is the base of silicic acid, Si4. Instead, solutions of silicates are usually observed as mixtures of condensed, the nature of soluble silicates is relevant to understanding biomineralization and the synthesis of aluminosilicates, such as the industrially important catalysts called zeolites. Although the tetrahedron is the coordination geometry for silicon compounds. A well-known example of such a high number is hexafluorosilicate. Octahedral coordination by 6 oxygen centres is observed, at very high pressure, even SiO2 adopts this geometry in the mineral stishovite, a dense polymorph of silica found in the lower mantle of the Earth. This structure is formed by shock during meteorite impacts. In geology and astronomy, the silicate is used to denote types of rock that consist predominantly of silicate minerals. On Earth, a variety of silicate minerals occur in an even wider range of combinations as a result of the processes that form
12.
Quartz
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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
13.
Petrifaction
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Petrified wood typifies this process, but all organisms, from bacteria to vertebrates, can become petrified. Petrification takes place through a combination of two processes, permineralization and replacement. These processes create replicas of the specimen that are similar down to the microscopic level. One of the involved in petrification is permineralization. The fossils created through this process tend to contain an amount of the original material of the specimen. This process occurs when groundwater containing dissolved minerals, fills pore spaces and cavities of specimens, particularly bone, the pores of the organisms tissues are filled when these minerals precipitate out of the water. Two common types of permineralization are silicification and pyritization, silicification is the process in which organic matter becomes saturated with silica. A common source of silica is volcanic material, studies have shown that in this process, most of the original organic matter is destroyed. Silicification most often occurs in two environments-either the specimen is buried in sediments of deltas and floodplains or organisms are buried in volcanic ash, the process begins when a specimen is permeated with an aqueous silica solution. The cell walls of the specimen are progressively dissolved and silica is deposited into the empty spaces, in wood samples, as the process proceeds, cellulose and lignin, two components of wood, are degraded and replaced with silica. The specimen is transformed to stone as water is lost, pyritization is a process similar to silicification, but instead involves the deposition of iron and sulfur in the pores and cavities of an organism. Pyritization can result in both solid fossils as well as preserved soft tissues, in marine environments, pyritization occurs when organisms are buried in sediments containing a high concentration of iron sulfides. Organisms release sulfide, which reacts with dissolved iron in the surrounding water and this reaction between iron and sulfides forms pyrite. Carbonate shell material of the organism is replaced with pyrite due to a higher concentration of pyrite. Pyritization occurs to an extent in plants in clay environments. Replacement, the process involved in petrification, occurs when water containing dissolved minerals dissolves the original solid material of an organism. This can take place extremely slowly, replicating the structure of the organism. The slower the rate of the process, the better defined the structure will be
14.
Sediment
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For sediment in beverages, see dregs. For example, sand and silt can be carried in suspension in water and on reaching the sea be deposited by sedimentation. Sediments are most often transported by water, but also wind, beach sands and river channel deposits are examples of fluvial transport and deposition, though sediment also often settles out of slow-moving or standing water in lakes and oceans. Desert sand dunes and loess are examples of transport and deposition. Glacial moraine deposits and till are ice-transported sediments, sediment can be classified based on its grain size and/or its composition. Sediment size is measured on a log base 2 scale, called the Phi scale, composition of sediment can be measured in terms of, parent rock lithology mineral composition chemical make-up. This leads to an ambiguity in which clay can be used as both a size-range and a composition, sediment is transported based on the strength of the flow that carries it and its own size, volume, density, and shape. Stronger flows will increase the lift and drag on the particle, causing it to rise, rivers and streams carry sediment in their flows. This sediment can be in a variety of locations within the flow and these relationships are shown in the following table for the Rouse number, which is a ratio of sediment fall velocity to upwards velocity. If the upwards velocity is less than the settling velocity, but still high enough for the sediment to move, it will move along the bed as bed load by rolling, sliding. If the upwards velocity is higher than the velocity, the sediment will be transported high in the flow as wash load. As there are generally a range of different particle sizes in the flow, sediment motion can create self-organized structures such as ripples, dunes, antidunes on the river or stream bed. These bedforms are often preserved in rocks and can be used to estimate the direction. Overland flow can erode soil particles and transport them downslope, the erosion associated with overland flow may occur through different methods depending on meteorological and flow conditions. If the initial impact of rain droplets dislodges soil, the phenomenon is called rainsplash erosion, if overland flow is directly responsible for sediment entrainment but does not form gullies, it is called sheet erosion. If the flow and the substrate permit channelization, gullies may form, glaciers carry a wide range of sediment sizes, and deposit it in moraines. The overall balance between sediment in transport and sediment being deposited on the bed is given by the Exner equation and this expression states that the rate of increase in bed elevation due to deposition is proportional to the amount of sediment that falls out of the flow. This can be localized, and simply due to obstacles, examples are scour holes behind boulders, where flow accelerates
15.
Volcanic ash
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Volcanic ash consists of fragments of pulverized rock, minerals and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm in diameter. The term volcanic ash is often loosely used to refer to all explosive eruption products. Volcanic ash is formed during volcanic eruptions when dissolved gases in magma expand. The force of the escaping gas shatters the magma and propels it into the atmosphere where it solidifies into fragments of volcanic rock and glass. Ash is also produced when magma comes into contact with water during phreatomagmatic eruptions, once in the air, ash is transported by wind up to thousands of kilometers away. Volcanic ash is formed during volcanic eruptions, phreatomagmatic eruptions. Explosive eruptions occur when magma decompresses as it rises, allowing dissolved volatiles to exsolve into gas bubbles, as more bubbles nucleate a foam is produced, which decreases the density of the magma, accelerating it up the conduit. Fragmentation occurs when bubbles occupy ~70-80 vol% of the erupting mixture, when fragmentation occurs, violently expanding bubbles tear the magma apart into fragments which are ejected into the atmosphere where they solidify into ash particles. Fragmentation is an efficient process of ash formation and is capable of generating very fine ash even without the addition of water. Volcanic ash is produced during phreatomagmatic eruptions. During these eruptions fragmentation occurs when magma comes into contact with bodies of water groundwater, as the magma, which is significantly hotter than the boiling point of water, comes into contact with water an insulating vapor film forms. Eventually this vapor film will collapse leading to direct coupling of the cold water and this increases the heat transfer which leads to the rapid expansion of water and fragmentation of the magma into small particles which are subsequently ejected from the volcanic vent. Fragmentation causes an increase in area between magma and water creating a feedback mechanism, leading to further fragmentation and production of fine ash particles. Pyroclastic density currents can also produce ash particles and these are typically produced by lava dome collapse or collapse of the eruption column. Within pyroclastic density currents particle abrasion occurs as particles interact with each resulting in a reduction in grain size. In addition, ash can be produced during secondary fragmentation of pumice fragments and these processes produce large quantities of very fine grained ash which is removed from pyroclastic density currents in co-ignimbrite ash plumes. Physical and chemical characteristics of volcanic ash are primarily controlled by the style of volcanic eruption, another parameter controlling the amount of ash produced is the duration of the eruption, the longer the eruption is sustained, the more ash will be produced. The types of minerals present in volcanic ash are dependent on the chemistry of the magma from which it erupted, low energy eruptions of basalt produce a characteristically dark coloured ash containing ~45 - 55% silica that is generally rich in iron and magnesium
16.
Oxygen
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Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive nonmetal. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen, at standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O2. This is an important part of the atmosphere and diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20. 8% of the Earths atmosphere, additionally, as oxides the element makes up almost half of the Earths crust. Most of the mass of living organisms is oxygen as a component of water, conversely, oxygen is continuously replenished by photosynthesis, which uses the energy of sunlight to produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is too reactive to remain a free element in air without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms. Another form of oxygen, ozone, strongly absorbs ultraviolet UVB radiation, but ozone is a pollutant near the surface where it is a by-product of smog. At low earth orbit altitudes, sufficient atomic oxygen is present to cause corrosion of spacecraft, the name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, whose experiments with oxygen helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion. One of the first known experiments on the relationship between combustion and air was conducted by the 2nd century BCE Greek writer on mechanics, Philo of Byzantium. In his work Pneumatica, Philo observed that inverting a vessel over a burning candle, Philo incorrectly surmised that parts of the air in the vessel were converted into the classical element fire and thus were able to escape through pores in the glass. Many centuries later Leonardo da Vinci built on Philos work by observing that a portion of air is consumed during combustion and respiration, Oxygen was discovered by the Polish alchemist Sendivogius, who considered it the philosophers stone. In the late 17th century, Robert Boyle proved that air is necessary for combustion, English chemist John Mayow refined this work by showing that fire requires only a part of air that he called spiritus nitroaereus. From this he surmised that nitroaereus is consumed in both respiration and combustion, Mayow observed that antimony increased in weight when heated, and inferred that the nitroaereus must have combined with it. Accounts of these and other experiments and ideas were published in 1668 in his work Tractatus duo in the tract De respiratione. Robert Hooke, Ole Borch, Mikhail Lomonosov, and Pierre Bayen all produced oxygen in experiments in the 17th and the 18th century but none of them recognized it as a chemical element. This may have been in part due to the prevalence of the philosophy of combustion and corrosion called the phlogiston theory, which was then the favored explanation of those processes. Established in 1667 by the German alchemist J. J. Becher, one part, called phlogiston, was given off when the substance containing it was burned, while the dephlogisticated part was thought to be its true form, or calx. The fact that a substance like wood gains overall weight in burning was hidden by the buoyancy of the combustion products
17.
Cell (biology)
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The cell is the basic structural, functional, and biological unit of all known living organisms. A cell is the smallest unit of life that can replicate independently, the study of cells is called cell biology. Cells consist of cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane, which contains many such as proteins. Organisms can be classified as unicellular or multicellular, while the number of cells in plants and animals varies from species to species, humans contain more than 10 trillion cells. Most plant and animal cells are only under a microscope. The cell was discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665, who named the unit for its resemblance to cells inhabited by Christian monks in a monastery. Cells emerged on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago, Cells are of two types, eukaryotic, which contain a nucleus, and prokaryotic, which do not. Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms, while eukaryotes can be either single-celled or multicellular, prokaryotic cells were the first form of life on Earth, characterised by having vital biological processes including cell signaling and being self-sustaining. They are simpler and smaller than eukaryotic cells, and lack membrane-bound organelles such as the nucleus, prokaryotes include two of the domains of life, bacteria and archaea. The DNA of a prokaryotic cell consists of a chromosome that is in direct contact with the cytoplasm. The nuclear region in the cytoplasm is called the nucleoid, most prokaryotes are the smallest of all organisms ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 µm in diameter. Though most prokaryotes have both a cell membrane and a wall, there are exceptions such as Mycoplasma and Thermoplasma which only possess the cell membrane layer. The envelope gives rigidity to the cell and separates the interior of the cell from its environment, the cell wall consists of peptidoglycan in bacteria, and acts as an additional barrier against exterior forces. It also prevents the cell from expanding and bursting from osmotic pressure due to a hypotonic environment, some eukaryotic cells also have a cell wall. Inside the cell is the region that contains the genome, ribosomes. The genetic material is found in the cytoplasm. Prokaryotes can carry extrachromosomal DNA elements called plasmids, which are usually circular, linear bacterial plasmids have been identified in several species of spirochete bacteria, including members of the genus Borrelia notably Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease. Though not forming a nucleus, the DNA is condensed in a nucleoid, plasmids encode additional genes, such as antibiotic resistance genes
18.
Lignin
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Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form important structural materials in the support tissues of vascular plants and some algae. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity. Chemically, lignins are cross-linked phenolic polymers and he named the substance “lignine”, which is derived from the Latin word lignum, meaning wood. It is one of the most abundant organic polymers on Earth, lignin constitutes 30% of non-fossil organic carbon and 20-35% of the dry mass of wood. The Carboniferous Period is in part defined by the evolution of lignin, the composition of lignin varies from species to species. An example of composition from a sample is 63. 4% carbon,5. 9% hydrogen,0. 7% ash. As a biopolymer, lignin is unusual because of its heterogeneity and its most commonly noted function is the support through strengthening of wood in vascular plants. Global commercial production of lignin is around 1.1 million metric tons per year and is used in a range of low volume, niche applications where the form. Lignin fills the spaces in the wall between cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin components, especially in vascular and support tissues, xylem tracheids, vessel elements. It is covalently linked to hemicellulose and therefore cross-links different plant polysaccharides, conferring mechanical strength to the cell wall and it is particularly abundant in compression wood but scarce in tension wood, which are types of reaction wood. Lignin plays a part in conducting water in plant stems. The polysaccharide components of plant cell walls are highly hydrophilic and thus permeable to water, the crosslinking of polysaccharides by lignin is an obstacle for water absorption to the cell wall. Thus, lignin makes it possible for the vascular tissue to conduct water efficiently. Lignin is present in all plants, but not in bryophytes. However, it is present in red algae, which seems to suggest that the ancestor of plants. This would suggest that its function was structural, it plays this role in the red alga Calliarthron. Another possibility is that the lignins in red algae and in plants are result of convergent evolution, lignin plays a significant role in the carbon cycle, sequestering atmospheric carbon into the living tissues of woody perennial vegetation. Lignin is one of the most slowly decomposing components of dead vegetation, the resulting soil humus, in general, holds nutrients onto its surface, and hence increases its cation exchange capacity and moisture retention, hence it increases the productivity of soil
19.
Cellulose
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Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms, Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. The cellulose content of cotton fiber is 90%, that of wood is 40–50%, Cellulose is mainly used to produce paperboard and paper. Smaller quantities are converted into a variety of derivative products such as cellophane. Conversion of cellulose from energy crops into biofuels such as ethanol is under investigation as an alternative fuel source. Cellulose for industrial use is mainly obtained from wood pulp and cotton, some animals, particularly ruminants and termites, can digest cellulose with the help of symbiotic micro-organisms that live in their guts, such as Trichonympha. In humans, cellulose acts as a bulking agent for feces and is often referred to as a dietary fiber. Cellulose was discovered in 1838 by the French chemist Anselme Payen, Cellulose was used to produce the first successful thermoplastic polymer, celluloid, by Hyatt Manufacturing Company in 1870. Production of rayon from cellulose began in the 1890s and cellophane was invented in 1912, hermann Staudinger determined the polymer structure of cellulose in 1920. The compound was first chemically synthesized in 1992, by Kobayashi, Cellulose has no taste, is odorless, is hydrophilic with the contact angle of 20–30 degrees, is insoluble in water and most organic solvents, is chiral and is biodegradable. It was shown to melt at 467 °C in 2016 and it can be broken down chemically into its glucose units by treating it with concentrated mineral acids at high temperature. Cellulose is derived from D-glucose units, which condense through β-glycosidic bonds and this linkage motif contrasts with that for α-glycosidic bonds present in starch and glycogen. This confers tensile strength in cell walls, where cellulose microfibrils are meshed into a polysaccharide matrix, compared to starch, cellulose is also much more crystalline. Whereas starch undergoes a crystalline to amorphous transition when heated beyond 60–70 °C in water, cellulose requires a temperature of 320 °C, several different crystalline structures of cellulose are known, corresponding to the location of hydrogen bonds between and within strands. Natural cellulose is cellulose I, with structures Iα and Iβ, Cellulose produced by bacteria and algae is enriched in Iα while cellulose of higher plants consists mainly of Iβ. Cellulose in regenerated cellulose fibers is cellulose II, the conversion of cellulose I to cellulose II is irreversible, suggesting that cellulose I is metastable and cellulose II is stable. With various chemical treatments it is possible to produce the structures cellulose III, many properties of cellulose depend on its chain length or degree of polymerization, the number of glucose units that make up one polymer molecule
20.
Rock (geology)
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Rock or stone is a natural substance, a solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. For example, granite, a rock, is a combination of the minerals quartz, feldspar. The Earths outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock, rock has been used by mankind throughout history. The minerals and metals found in rocks have been essential to human civilization, three major groups of rocks are defined, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, which is a component of geology. At a granular level, rocks are composed of grains of minerals, the aggregate minerals forming the rock are held together by chemical bonds. The types and abundance of minerals in a rock are determined by the manner in which the rock was formed, many rocks contain silica, a compound of silicon and oxygen that forms 74. 3% of the Earths crust. This material forms crystals with other compounds in the rock, the proportion of silica in rocks and minerals is a major factor in determining their name and properties. Rocks are geologically classified according to such as mineral and chemical composition, permeability, the texture of the constituent particles. These physical properties are the end result of the processes that formed the rocks, over the course of time, rocks can transform from one type into another, as described by the geological model called the rock cycle. These events produce three general classes of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, the three classes of rocks are subdivided into many groups. However, there are no hard and fast boundaries between allied rocks, hence the definitions adopted in establishing rock nomenclature merely correspond to more or less arbitrary selected points in a continuously graduated series. Igneous rock forms through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava and this magma can be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planets mantle or crust. Typically, the melting of rocks is caused by one or more of three processes, an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition, igneous rocks are divided into two main categories, plutonic rock and volcanic. Plutonic or intrusive rocks result when magma cools and crystallizes slowly within the Earths crust, a common example of this type is granite. Volcanic or extrusive rocks result from magma reaching the surface either as lava or fragmental ejecta, the chemical abundance and the rate of cooling of magma typically forms a sequence known as Bowens reaction series. Most major igneous rocks are found along this scale, about 64. 7% of the Earths crust by volume consists of igneous rocks, making it the most plentiful category. Of these, 66% are basalts and gabbros, 16% are granite, only 0. 6% are syenites and 0. 3% peridotites and dunites
21.
Decomposition
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Decomposition is the process by which organic substances are broken down into simpler matter. The process is a part of nutrient cycle and is essential for recycling the matter that occupies physical space in the biosphere. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death, animals, such as worms, also help decompose the organic materials. Organisms that do this are known as decomposers, although no two organisms decompose in the same way, they all undergo the same sequential stages of decomposition. The science which studies decomposition is referred to as taphonomy from the Greek word τάφος taphos. One can differentiate abiotic from biotic decomposition, the former means degradation of a substance by chemical or physical processes, e. g. hydrolysis. The latter means the metabolic breakdown of materials into simpler components by living organisms and these processes release gases, such as cadaverine and putrescine, that are the chief source of the unmistakably putrid odor of decaying animal tissue. Prime decomposers are bacteria or fungi, though larger scavengers also play an important role in decomposition if the body is accessible to insects, mites and other animals. The most important arthropods that are involved in the process include carrion beetles, mites, the most important non-insect animals that are typically involved in the process include mammal and bird scavengers, such as coyotes, dogs, wolves, foxes, rats, crows and vultures. Some of these scavengers also remove and scatter bones, which they ingest at a later time, aquatic and marine environments have break-down agents that include bacteria, fish, crustaceans, Diptera larvae and other carrion scavengers. Five general stages are used to describe the process of decomposition in vertebrate animals, fresh, bloat, active and advanced decay, the general stages of decomposition are coupled with two stages of chemical decomposition, autolysis and putrefaction. These two stages contribute to the process of decomposition, which breaks down the main components of the body. The fresh stage begins immediately after the heart stops beating, from the moment of death, the body begins cooling or warming to match the temperature of the ambient environment, during a stage called algor mortis. Shortly after death, within three to six hours, the tissues become rigid and incapable of relaxing, during a stage called rigor mortis. Once the heart stops, the blood can no longer supply oxygen or remove carbon dioxide from the tissues and this process is known as autolysis. Visible changes caused by decomposition are limited during the fresh stage and these multiply, consuming the bodys carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, to produce a variety of substances including propionic acid, lactic acid, methane, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia. The process of microbial proliferation within a body is referred to as putrefaction and leads to the stage of decomposition. Blowflies and flesh flies are the first carrion insects to arrive, the bloat stage provides the first clear visual sign that microbial proliferation is underway
22.
Forest
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A forest is a large area dominated by trees. Hundreds of more precise definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as density, tree height, land use, legal standing. According to the widely used Food and Agriculture Organization definition, forests covered four billion hectares or approximately 30 percent of the land area in 2006. Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, and are distributed across the globe, Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earths biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earths plant biomass. Forests at different latitudes and elevations form distinctly different ecozones, boreal forests near the poles, tropical forests near the equator, higher elevation areas tend to support forests similar to those at higher latitudes, and amount of precipitation also affects forest composition. Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways, Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions. Forests can also affect peoples health, human activities, including harvesting forest resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems. Although forest is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition, there are three broad categories of forest definitions in use, administrative, land use, and land cover. Land use definitions are based upon the purpose that the land serves. For example, a forest may be defined as any land that is used primarily for production of timber, land cover definitions define forests based upon the type and density of vegetation growing on the land. Such definitions typically define a forest as an area growing trees above some threshold and these thresholds are typically the number of trees per area, the area of ground under the tree canopy or the section of land that is occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks. Under such land cover definitions, and area of land only be defined as forest if it is growing trees, areas that fail to meet the land cover definition may be still included under while immature trees are establishing if they are expected to meet the definition at maturity. Under land use definitions, there is variation on where the cutoff points are between a forest, woodland, and savanna. Under some definitions, forests require high levels of tree canopy cover, from 60% to 100%, excluding savannas. Other definitions consider savannas to be a type of forest, the term was not endemic to Romance languages, and cognates in Romance languages, such as Italian foresta, Spanish and Portuguese floresta, etc. are all ultimately borrowings of the French word. The exact origin of Medieval Latin foresta is obscure, uses of the word forest in English to denote any uninhabited area of non-enclosure are now considered archaic. The word was introduced by the Norman rulers of England as a term denoting an uncultivated area legally set aside for hunting by feudal nobility. These hunting forests were not necessarily wooded much, if at all, however, as hunting forests did often include considerable areas of woodland, the word forest eventually came to mean wooded land more generally
23.
Manganese
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Manganese is a chemical element with symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is not found as an element in nature, it is often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a metal with important industrial metal alloy uses, particularly in stainless steels, by the mid-18th century, Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele had used pyrolusite to produce chlorine. Scheele and others were aware that pyrolusite contained a new element, johan Gottlieb Gahn was the first to isolate an impure sample of manganese metal in 1774, which he did by reducing the dioxide with carbon. Manganese phosphating is used for rust and corrosion prevention on steel, ionized manganese is used industrially as pigments of various colors, which depend on the oxidation state of the ions. The permanganates of alkali and alkaline earth metals are powerful oxidizers, Manganese dioxide is used as the cathode material in zinc-carbon and alkaline batteries. In biology, manganese ions function as cofactors for a variety of enzymes with many functions. Manganese enzymes are essential in detoxification of superoxide free radicals in organisms that must deal with elemental oxygen. Manganese also functions in the complex of photosynthetic plants. The element is a trace mineral for all known living organisms but is a neurotoxin. In larger amounts, and apparently with far greater effectiveness through inhalation, Manganese is a silvery-gray metal that resembles iron. It is hard and very brittle, difficult to fuse, Manganese metal and its common ions are paramagnetic. Manganese tarnishes slowly in air and oxidizes like iron in water containing dissolved oxygen, naturally occurring manganese is composed of one stable isotope, 55Mn. Eighteen radioisotopes have been isolated and described, the most stable being 53Mn with a half-life of 3.7 million years, 54Mn with a half-life of 312.3 days, and 52Mn with a half-life of 5.591 days. All of the radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than three hours, and the majority of less than one minute. Manganese also has three meta states, Manganese is part of the iron group of elements, which are thought to be synthesized in large stars shortly before the supernova explosion. 53Mn decays to 53Cr with a half-life of 3.7 million years, because of its relatively short half-life, 53Mn is relatively rare, produced by cosmic rays impact on iron. Manganese isotopic contents are combined with chromium isotopic contents and have found application in isotope geology
24.
Iron
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Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series and it is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earths outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earths crust, like the other group 8 elements, ruthenium and osmium, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, −2 to +6, although +2 and +3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but is reactive to oxygen, fresh iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal air to give hydrated iron oxides, commonly known as rust. Unlike the metals that form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides occupy more volume than the metal and thus flake off, Iron metal has been used since ancient times, although copper alloys, which have lower melting temperatures, were used even earlier in human history. Pure iron is soft, but is unobtainable by smelting because it is significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities, in particular carbon. A certain proportion of carbon steel, which may be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron. Crude iron metal is produced in blast furnaces, where ore is reduced by coke to pig iron, further refinement with oxygen reduces the carbon content to the correct proportion to make steel. Steels and iron alloys formed with metals are by far the most common industrial metals because they have a great range of desirable properties. Iron chemical compounds have many uses, Iron oxide mixed with aluminium powder can be ignited to create a thermite reaction, used in welding and purifying ores. Iron forms binary compounds with the halogens and the chalcogens, among its organometallic compounds is ferrocene, the first sandwich compound discovered. Iron plays an important role in biology, forming complexes with oxygen in hemoglobin and myoglobin. Iron is also the metal at the site of many important redox enzymes dealing with cellular respiration and oxidation and reduction in plants. A human male of average height has about 4 grams of iron in his body and this iron is distributed throughout the body in hemoglobin, tissues, muscles, bone marrow, blood proteins, enzymes, ferritin, hemosiderin, and transport in plasma. The mechanical properties of iron and its alloys can be evaluated using a variety of tests, including the Brinell test, Rockwell test, the data on iron is so consistent that it is often used to calibrate measurements or to compare tests. An increase in the content will cause a significant increase in the hardness. Maximum hardness of 65 Rc is achieved with a 0. 6% carbon content, because of the softness of iron, it is much easier to work with than its heavier congeners ruthenium and osmium. Because of its significance for planetary cores, the properties of iron at high pressures and temperatures have also been studied extensively
25.
Copper
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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
26.
Crystal
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A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macroscopic single crystals are usually identifiable by their geometrical shape, the scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography. The process of crystal formation via mechanisms of crystal growth is called crystallization or solidification, the word crystal derives from the Ancient Greek word κρύσταλλος, meaning both ice and rock crystal, from κρύος, icy cold, frost. Examples of large crystals include snowflakes, diamonds, and table salt, most inorganic solids are not crystals but polycrystals, i. e. many microscopic crystals fused together into a single solid. Examples of polycrystals include most metals, rocks, ceramics, a third category of solids is amorphous solids, where the atoms have no periodic structure whatsoever. Examples of amorphous solids include glass, wax, and many plastics, Crystals are often used in pseudoscientific practices such as crystal therapy, and, along with gemstones, are sometimes associated with spellwork in Wiccan beliefs and related religious movements. The scientific definition of a crystal is based on the arrangement of atoms inside it. A crystal is a solid where the form a periodic arrangement. For example, when liquid water starts freezing, the change begins with small ice crystals that grow until they fuse. Most macroscopic inorganic solids are polycrystalline, including almost all metals, ceramics, ice, rocks, solids that are neither crystalline nor polycrystalline, such as glass, are called amorphous solids, also called glassy, vitreous, or noncrystalline. These have no periodic order, even microscopically, there are distinct differences between crystalline solids and amorphous solids, most notably, the process of forming a glass does not release the latent heat of fusion, but forming a crystal does. A crystal structure is characterized by its cell, a small imaginary box containing one or more atoms in a specific spatial arrangement. The unit cells are stacked in three-dimensional space to form the crystal, the symmetry of a crystal is constrained by the requirement that the unit cells stack perfectly with no gaps. There are 219 possible crystal symmetries, called space groups. These are grouped into 7 crystal systems, such as cubic crystal system or hexagonal crystal system, Crystals are commonly recognized by their shape, consisting of flat faces with sharp angles. Euhedral crystals are those with obvious, well-formed flat faces, anhedral crystals do not, usually because the crystal is one grain in a polycrystalline solid. The flat faces of a crystal are oriented in a specific way relative to the underlying atomic arrangement of the crystal. This occurs because some surface orientations are more stable than others, as a crystal grows, new atoms attach easily to the rougher and less stable parts of the surface, but less easily to the flat, stable surfaces
27.
Carbon
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Carbon is a chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds, three isotopes occur naturally, 12C and 13C being stable, while 14C is a radioactive isotope, decaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity, Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earths crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. It is the second most abundant element in the body by mass after oxygen. The atoms of carbon can bond together in different ways, termed allotropes of carbon, the best known are graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon. The physical properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic form, for example, graphite is opaque and black while diamond is highly transparent. Graphite is soft enough to form a streak on paper, while diamond is the hardest naturally occurring material known, graphite is a good electrical conductor while diamond has a low electrical conductivity. Under normal conditions, diamond, carbon nanotubes, and graphene have the highest thermal conductivities of all known materials, all carbon allotropes are solids under normal conditions, with graphite being the most thermodynamically stable form. They are chemically resistant and require high temperature to react even with oxygen, the most common oxidation state of carbon in inorganic compounds is +4, while +2 is found in carbon monoxide and transition metal carbonyl complexes. The largest sources of carbon are limestones, dolomites and carbon dioxide, but significant quantities occur in organic deposits of coal, peat, oil. For this reason, carbon has often referred to as the king of the elements. The allotropes of carbon graphite, one of the softest known substances, and diamond. It bonds readily with other small atoms including other carbon atoms, Carbon is known to form almost ten million different compounds, a large majority of all chemical compounds. Carbon also has the highest sublimation point of all elements, although thermodynamically prone to oxidation, carbon resists oxidation more effectively than elements such as iron and copper that are weaker reducing agents at room temperature. Carbon is the element, with a ground-state electron configuration of 1s22s22p2. Its first four ionisation energies,1086.5,2352.6,4620.5 and 6222.7 kJ/mol, are higher than those of the heavier group 14 elements. Carbons covalent radii are normally taken as 77.2 pm,66.7 pm and 60.3 pm, although these may vary depending on coordination number, in general, covalent radius decreases with lower coordination number and higher bond order. Carbon compounds form the basis of all life on Earth
28.
Chromium
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Chromium is a chemical element with symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 and it is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard and brittle metal which takes a high polish, resists tarnishing, and has a high melting point. The name of the element is derived from the Greek word χρῶμα, chrōma, meaning color, Chromium metal is of high value for its high corrosion resistance and hardness. A major development was the discovery that steel could be highly resistant to corrosion and discoloration by adding metallic chromium to form stainless steel. Stainless steel and chrome plating together comprise 85% of the commercial use, trivalent chromium ion is an essential nutrient in trace amounts in humans for insulin, sugar and lipid metabolism, although the issue is debated. While chromium metal and Cr ions are not considered toxic, hexavalent chromium is toxic and carcinogenic, abandoned chromium production sites often require environmental cleanup. Chromium is remarkable for its properties, it is the only elemental solid which shows antiferromagnetic ordering at room temperature. Above 38 °C, it changes to paramagnetic, Chromium metal left standing in air is passivated by oxidation, forming a thin, protective, surface layer. This layer is a structure only a few molecules thick. It is very dense, and prevents the diffusion of oxygen into the underlying metal and this is different from the oxide that forms on iron and carbon steel, through which elemental oxygen continues to migrate, reaching the underlying material to cause incessant rusting. Passivation can be enhanced by short contact with oxidizing acids like nitric acid, passivated chromium is stable against acids. Passivation can be removed with a reducing agent that destroys the protective oxide layer on the metal. Chromium metal treated in this way readily dissolves in weak acids, Chromium, unlike such metals as iron and nickel, does not suffer from hydrogen embrittlement. However, it suffer from nitrogen embrittlement, reacting with nitrogen from air. Chromium is the 22nd most abundant element in Earths crust with a concentration of 100 ppm. Chromium compounds are found in the environment from the erosion of chromium-containing rocks, Chromium is mined as chromite ore. About two-fifths of the ores and concentrates in the world are produced in South Africa, while Kazakhstan, India, Russia. Untapped chromite deposits are plentiful, but geographically concentrated in Kazakhstan, although rare, deposits of native chromium exist
29.
Cobalt
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Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. Like nickel, cobalt is found in the Earths crust only in chemically combined form, the free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal. In 1735, such ores were found to be reducible to a new metal, today, some cobalt is produced specifically from various metallic-lustered ores, for example cobaltite, but the main source of the element is as a by-product of copper and nickel mining. The copper belt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, cobalt is primarily used in the preparation of magnetic, wear-resistant and high-strength alloys. The compounds, cobalt silicate and cobalt aluminate give a deep blue color to glass, ceramics, inks, paints. Cobalt occurs naturally as only one isotope, cobalt-59. Cobalt-60 is an important radioisotope, used as a radioactive tracer. Cobalt is the center of coenzymes called cobalamins, the most common example of which is vitamin B12. As such, it is a trace dietary mineral for all animals. Cobalt in inorganic form is also a micronutrient for bacteria, algae, cobalt is a ferromagnetic metal with a specific gravity of 8.9. The Curie temperature is 1,115 °C and the moment is 1. 6–1.7 Bohr magnetons per atom. Cobalt has a relative permeability two-thirds that of iron, metallic cobalt occurs as two crystallographic structures, hcp and fcc. The ideal transition temperature between the hcp and fcc structures is 450 °C, but in practice, the difference is so small that random intergrowth of the two is common. Cobalt is a weakly reducing metal that is protected from oxidation by an oxide film. It is attacked by halogens and sulfur, heating in oxygen produces Co3O4 which loses oxygen at 900 °C to give the monoxide CoO. The metal reacts with fluorine at 520 K to give CoF3, with chlorine, bromine and iodine and it does not react with hydrogen gas or nitrogen gas even when heated, but it does react with boron, carbon, phosphorus, arsenic and sulfur. At ordinary temperatures, it reacts slowly with mineral acids, and very slowly with moist, common oxidation states of cobalt include +2 and +3, although compounds with oxidation states ranging from −3 to +5 are also known. A common oxidation state for simple compounds is +2 and these salts form the pink-colored metal aquo complex 2+ in water
30.
Iron oxide
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Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. All together, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides, common rust is a form of iron oxide. Iron oxides are used as inexpensive, durable pigments in paints, coatings. Colors commonly available are in the end of the yellow/orange/red/brown/black range. When used as a coloring, it has E number E172. Limonite Iron oxide nanoparticles List of inorganic pigments Information from Nano-Oxides, http, //chemed. chem. purdue. edu/demos/demosheets/12.3. html http, //minerals. usgs. gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/iron_oxide/ CDC - NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards de
31.
Dendrochronology
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Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed in order to analyze atmospheric conditions during different periods in history. Dendrochronology is useful for determining the timing of events and rates of change in the environment and also in works of art and architecture, such as old panel paintings on wood, buildings and it is also used in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages. New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark, a trees growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes, resulting in visible growth rings. Each ring marks a complete cycle of seasons, or one year, as of 2013, the oldest tree-ring measurements in the Northern Hemisphere extend back 13,900 years. Dendrochronology derives from Ancient Greek, δένδρον, meaning tree limb, χρόνος, meaning time, and -λογία, the Greek botanist Theophrastus first mentioned that the wood of trees has rings. In his Trattato della Pittura, Leonardo da Vinci was the first person to mention that trees form rings annually, in 1737, French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon examined the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings. They found that in 1709, a severe winter produced a distinctly dark tree ring, the English polymath Charles Babbage proposed using dendrochronology to date the remains of trees in peat bogs or even in geological strata. During the latter half of the century, the scientific study of tree rings. In 1859, the German-American Jacob Kuechler used crossdating to examine oaks in order to study the record of climate in western Texas, in 1866, the German botanist, entomologist, and forester Julius Ratzeburg observed the effects on tree rings of defoliation caused by insect infestations. By 1882, this observation was already appearing in forestry textbooks, in the 1870s, the Dutch astronomer Jacobus C. Kapteyn was using crossdating to reconstruct the climates of the Netherlands, in 1881, the Swiss-Austrian forester Arthur von Seckendorff-Gudent was using crossdating. From 1869 to 1901, Robert Hartig, a German professor of forest pathology, wrote a series of papers on the anatomy, in 1892, the Russian physicist Fedor Nikiforovich Shvedov wrote that he had used patterns found in tree rings to predict droughts in 1882 and 1891. During the first half of the 20th century, the astronomer A. E. Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Growth rings, also referred to as tree rings or annual rings, growth rings are the result of new growth in the vascular cambium, a layer of cells near the bark that is classified as a lateral meristem, this growth in diameter is known as secondary growth. Visible rings result from the change in speed through the seasons of the year, thus, critical for the title method. If the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings are more visible in temperate zones, where the seasons differ more markedly. The inner portion of a ring is formed early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid and is known as early wood. Many trees in temperate zones make one growth ring each year, hence, for the entire period of a trees life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern is formed that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew
32.
Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
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Santa Cruz is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut province to the north, and Chile to the west, Santa Cruz is the second-largest province of the country, and the least densely populated in mainland Argentina. The indigenous people of the province are the Tehuelches, who despite European exploration from the 16th century onwards, soon after the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s, the area was organised as the Territory of Santa Cruz, named after its original capital in Puerto Santa Cruz. The capital moved to Rio Gallegos in 1888 and has remained ever since. Immigrants from various European countries came to the territory in the late 19th, Santa Cruz became a province of Argentina in 1957. The Tehuelches inhabited these lands before the arrivals of the Spanish colonisation, in 1520 Ferdinand Magellan arrived to what is currently known as San Julián Bay. 15 years later Martín de Alcazaba explored the area near the Chico River, in the middle of the 18th century, the Jesuits settled in the area, establishing a few missions. When the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was created in 1776, antonio de Biedma founded Nueva Colonia near present Puerto Deseado and Floridablanca not far from Puerto San Julián, both of them shut down later by Viceroy Vertíz. Between 1825 and 1836 there were a series of explorations of the regions, in 1860 commander Luis Piedrabuena established a base on Isla Pavón in the estuary of Puerto Deseado. In 1901 the capital was moved to its current location at the city of Río Gallegos, at the beginning of 20th century, a large European immigration began to arrive to the almost uninhabited zone, Spanish, Germans, British and Slavs were the most numerous among them. They came mainly to escape the growing conflicts of World War I, the end of the war meant a sharp reduction in the amount of exports, bringing a serious economic crisis to Santa Cruz. The ideals of progressivism, brought by the Spanish immigrants, grew among the workers who, working in Santa Cruzs harsh environment under often sub-human conditions, decided to strike in 1922. The strike was severely and harshly repressed by the government, culminating in the events of the Patagonia Trágica, in 1944 the Military zone of Comodoro Rivadavia was created, which encompassed the northern part of the National Government of Santa Cruz and the southern part of Chubut Province. This jurisdiction lasted until the abolition of the measures in 1955, the Territory of Santa Cruz acquired province status in 1957. In 1973, voters in Santa Cruz elected Jorge Cepernic, a Peronist, an advocate of labor rights, Gov. Cepernic worked with film maker Osvaldo Bayer to make La Patagonia Rebelde, a documentary drama on the ill-fated 1922 sheep ranch laborers strike. For this, Gov. Cepernic was imprisoned following the March,1976, elected mayor in 1987 and governor in 1991, Kirchner helped negotiate a US$535 million payout for his province following the 1993 privatization of the state-owned oil concern YPF. Presiding over four years of expansion totalling 42%, Pres, Kirchner steered record spending into public works. To the west, the Andes at these latitudes are lower than in the centre and north of Argentina, an immense ice sheet feeds the numerous glaciers
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Patagonia
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Patagonia is a sparsely populated region located at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the section of the Andes mountains as well as the deserts, steppes. Patagonia has two coasts, a western one towards the Pacific Ocean and an eastern one towards the Atlantic Ocean, the Colorado and Barrancas rivers, which run from the Andes to the Atlantic, are commonly considered the northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is sometimes included as part of Patagonia, most geographers and historians locate the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia at Reloncaví Estuary. The name Patagonia comes from the word used by Magellan in 1520 to describe the native people that his expedition thought to be giants. It is now believed that the people he called the Patagons were Tehuelches, the hypothesis was accepted and published in the New Review of Spanish Philology in the 2011 article. In the hollows of the plains are ponds or lakes of fresh and brackish water, towards the Andes, the shingle gives place to porphyry, granite, and basalt lavas, animal life becomes more abundant and vegetation more luxuriant. It is characteristic of the flora of the western coast, and consist principally of southern beech and conifers. Among the depressions by which the plateau is intersected transversely, the ones are the Gualichu, south of the Río Negro, the Maquinchao and Valcheta, the Senguerr. There, erosion which is caused principally by the sudden melting, best in evidence where in contact with folded Cretaceous rocks which are uplifted by the Cenozoic granite. It generally separates the plateau from the first lofty hills, the ridges generally called the pre-Cordillera, to the west of these, a similar longitudinal depression extends all along the foot of the snowy Andean Cordillera. This latter depression contains the richest and most fertile land of Patagonia, Lake basins along the Cordillera were also excavated by ice-streams, including Lake Argentino and Lake Fagnano, as well as coastal bays such as Bahía Inútil. There have been discrepancies among geologists on the origin of the Patagonian landmass, víctor Ramos has proposed that the Patagonian landmass originated as an allochtonous terrane that separated from Antarctica and docked in South America 250 to 270 Ma in the Permian era. A2014 study by Robert John Pankhurst and coworkers reject any idea of a far-travelled Patagonia claiming it is likely of parautochtonous origin, the Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits have revealed a most interesting vertebrate fauna. The Patagonian Myolania belongs to the Upper Chalk, having been associated with remains of Dinosauria. In the Cenozoic marine formation, a number of cetaceans has been discovered. At a state level, Patagonia lies inside two countries, Chile and Argentina, both countries have organised their Patagonian territories into non-equivalent administrative subdivisions, Provinces and departments in Argentina, and regions, provinces and communes in Chile. Being a unitary state Chiles first level administrative divisions—the regions—enjoy far less autonomy than Argentine provinces, Argentine provinces have elected governors and parliaments, while Chilean regions have government-appointed intendants
34.
Chinchilla, Queensland
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Chinchilla is a town in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. At the 2011 census, Chinchilla had a population of 5,487, the town was established in 1877. As the railway pushed west across the Darling Downs from Toowoomba and Dalby, agriculture is the mainstay of the community, with beef and pork production, wool growing, and horticulture traditionally underwriting the local economy. However, with the recent resources boom, the Kogan Creek Power Station have begun to inject cash into the town and Chinchilla is experiencing mass growth. House prices in Chinchilla have boomed as a result of the need to house new workers, Chinchilla is known as the Melon Capital of Australia, and plays host to a Melon Festival every second year in February – the next is to be held in 2019. Chinchilla Post Office opened on 3 January 1878, the Chinchilla War Memorial was originally located near the railway overpass and was unveiled on 30 January 1919 by the Queensland Governor, Hamilton Goold-Adams. In 1977 it was refurbished and relocated to the Returned. Chinchilla Christian School is set to move high school in 2014 or 2015. Leichhardt House is a hostel that provides accommodation for students from homes in remote areas, the Chinchilla Grandfather Clock Campdraft is a major event held every October, where entrants compete for the Grandfather Clock prize. Chinchilla also hosts horse races four times a year, estimated numbers at the first Festival were approximately 2,500 which grew to an estimated that there were 10,000 visitors on the main day of the 2011 festival. In 2009, the Melon Festival won the Queensland Regional Achievement, the Festival features interactive and unique events, such as Melon Skiing, Melon Bungee, Melon Bullseye, Melon Ironman, Melon Chariot, a pip spitting competition, and melon eating races. A special event held in 2009 saw John Allwood secure the Guinness World Record of Melon Head Smashing - cracking open as many watermelons as possible using only the head, currently his record is 47 melons in a minute. Chinchilla has a Cultural Centre, which includes a 700-seat auditorium, cinema and function room, outdoor patio, theatrette, plus bar, also included in the complex are the White Gums Art Gallery and the Cypress Pines Library. The Cultural Center also houses a cinema showing recently released movies, Chinchilla White Gums Art Gallery houses a new display every month. Chinchilla is one of the located on the Warrego Highway, which is a main highway leading out west to Charleville. The mainstays of Chinchillas tourism industry are the Historical Museum, fishing and fossicking for petrified wood, Chinchilla Red petrified wood is unique to the area, and known for its colour and quality. The Chinchilla White Gum is also unique to the area, an accredited Visitor Information Center is located on the Highway. Chinchilla has a range of facilities and a variety of sports clubs
35.
Hoegaarden
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Hoegaarden is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Hoegaarden proper, Meldert and Outgaarden, on January 1,2006, Hoegaarden had a total population of 6,225. The total area is 33.93 square kilometres gives a population density of 183 inhabitants per km². The current village was founded in 981 by the last ruler of the county of Brunengeruz, countess Alpaïdis later gave her county and castle to the Prince-Bishop of Liège. As an enclave of the Liège prince bishopric the village had tax advantages over the villages in the surrounding Duchy of Brabant and this tax advantage was lost after the French Revolution once the Prince-Bishopric of Liège was abolished. The industry had withered to nothing by 1955, but Pierre Celis later re-launched the towns now iconic white beer which has gone on to become a global brand. In December 2005, it was decided to close the Hoegaarden Brewery, however, the beer could not be brewed there with the right characteristics, and so the plan was cancelled. Pierre Celis, founder of the breweries Hoegaarden and Celis Hoegaarden is twinned with, Altmünster, Austria Media related to Hoegaarden at Wikimedia Commons
36.
Geopark
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A Geopark is a unified area that advances the protection and use of geological heritage in a sustainable way, and promotes the economic well-being of the people who live there. There are Global Geoparks and National Geoparks, a Global Geopark is a unified area with geological heritage of international significance. Geoparks use that heritage to promote awareness of key issues facing society in the context of the planet we all live on. Geoparks are not a legislative designation though the key heritage sites within a geopark are often protected under local, regional or national legislation as appropriate, the multidisciplinary nature of the concept of geopark and tourism promotion in geoparks differentiates itself from other models of sustainable tourism. The Global Geoparks Network is supported by United Nations Educational, Scientific, many national geoparks and other local geoparks projects also exist which are not included in the Global Geoparks Network. The geoparks initiative was launched by UNESCO in response to the perceived need for an initiative that recognizes sites representing an earth science interest. Global Geoparks Network aims at enhancing the value of such sites while at the time creating employment. The Global Geoparks Network works in synergy with UNESCOs World Heritage Centre and Man, the Global Geoparks Network is a UNESCO activity established in 1998. See Members of the Global Geoparks Network, geotourism Global Geoparks Network Asia Pacific Geoparks Network European Geoparks Network List of National Geoparks Global Geoparks Network European Geoparks Network Asia Pacific Geoparks Network
37.
Tocantins
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Tocantins is one of the states of Brazil. It is the newest of the 26 Brazilian states, formed in 1988, Tocantins covers 277,620.91 square kilometres and has a population of 1,496,880. Construction of its capital, Palmas, began in 1989, most of the cities in the state date to the Portuguese colonial period. With the exception of Araguaína there are few cities with a significant population in the state. The government has invested in a new capital, a hydropower dam, railroads. Tocantins has attracted hundreds of thousands of new residents, primarily to Palmas and it is building on its hydropower resources. The Araguaia and Tocantins rivers drain the largest watershed that lies entirely inside Brazilian territory, the Rio Tocantins has been dammed for hydropower, creating a large reservoir that has become a center of recreation. Because it is in the zone of the country, Tocantins has characteristics of the Amazon Basin. The Bananal Island, in the southwest of the State, is the largest fluvial island in the world, Tocantins is also home to the Araguaia National Park, the Carajás Indian reservations, and Jalapão State Park, which is about 250 kilometres from Palmas. There, the rivers create oases in the dry landscape, attracting many ecotourists to the region and it straddles both the Amazon Rainforest and the coastal savanna. Researchers have identified more than 20 archaeologically significant sites related to indigenous cultures, Tocantins is bordered to the northeast by the states of Maranhão and Piauí, Bahia to the east, Goiás to the south, Mato Grosso to the west, and Pará to the northwest. Tocantins was created from the northern two-fifths of Goiás state in 1989 and is divided into 139 municipalities, most of Tocantins is situated within a vast Brazilian area known as the cerrado. The cerrado regions typical climate is hot and semi-humid, with pronounced seasonal variation marked by a dry winter from May through October, the annual rainfall is around 800 to 1600 mm. The soils are very old, deep, and naturally nutrient-poor. The cerrado landscape cover 87% of Tocantins and is characterized by extensive savanna formations crossed by gallery forests, Cerrado includes various types of vegetation. Humid fields and buriti palm paths are found where the table is near the surface. Alpine pastures occur at higher altitudes and mesophytic forests on more fertile soils, the savanna formations are not homogenous. Intermediate forms include the dirty field, the field
38.
Dicksoniaceae
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The Dicksoniaceae is a family of tropical, subtropical and warm temperate ferns. Most of the 5-6 genera in the family are terrestrial ferns or have very short compared to tree ferns of the family Cyatheaceae. However, some of the species can reach several metres in height. A number of others are epiphytes and they are found mostly in tropical regions in the Southern Hemisphere, as far south as southern New Zealand. Species in the family are characterized by large pinnate fronds. The family includes species of tree ferns, which grow a single trunk. All members of the family have long, tapering hairs composed of cells arranged end to end, the ferns of family Dicksoniaceae are generally regarded as more primitive than those of the family Cyatheaceae, having originated in the early Jurassic period. Only 3 extant genera are recognised in this family, Calochlaena Dicksonia Lophosoria Cyatheales Classification of Ferns and Allies Large. Pryer, E. Schuettpelz, P. Korall, H. Schneider & P. G. Wolf 2006, archived from the original on 2008-02-26
39.
Psaronius
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Psaronius was a Marattialean tree fern which grew to 10m in height, and is associated with leaves of the organ genus Pecopteris and other extinct tree ferns. Originally, Psaronius was a name for the stems. Psaronius tree fern fossils are found from the Carboniferous through the Permian. The word Psaronius comes from the Greek ψαρονιος the root of which is ψαρον (psaron, in Germany, the stone was called staarstein. And in English, it was called either starry-stone or starling stone, like many extinct trees, psaronius is known by various individual fossil parts that are not always found together. The main parts include, the mantle, the stem, the fronds, the coziers. An unusual feature is that Psaronius did not have a true trunk and these rootlets are referred to as adventitious because they are appearing in an atypical location. These adventitious roots originate in a central stem high in the tree and this central stem becomes smaller lower in the tree so that at the base the mantle is composed entirely of roots. In some specimens, this mantle is over 1.0 m in diameter at the base of the tree, the fossilized wood of this root mantle is simply referred to as Psaronius. The side impressions of these roots are referred to as Tubiculites by the French Geologist François Cyrille GrandEury in 1877. Like modern tree ferns, Psaronius included other plant species growing in the root mantle and it has been determined through cross-sections of petrified Psaronius, that various vining and epiphytic plants were growing within the tree fern. Some Carboniferous plant species are known from their fossilized remains within these root mantles. Some of these that have studied extensively are the epiphyte Botryopteris, the vining climber Ankyropteris. The leaves most often associated with Psaronius are those known as Pecopteris, fossil of the croziers of the fern fronds have been found. They sometimes go by the name Spiropteris, the study of croziers associated with psaronius wood have been used to determine foliage associations. The fronds were often bipinnate and sometimes tripinnate, other leaf taxon associated with Psaronius include, Asterotheca, Acitheca, Remia and Radstockia. The bases where the leaves attached were thick to carry the weight of fronds that could attain the size of 2 to 3 meters, when fronds abscised from Psaronius, they left elliptical scars on the surface of the stem. Fossils of these leaf scars appear in different arrangements which may indicate different species of trees and these scars are known as Caulopteris, Megaphyton, Hagiophyton, and Artisophyton based on the four main arrangement patterns
40.
Tietea singularis
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Tietea singularis was a Marattialean tree fern from the Late Carboniferous–Permian which grew up to 12m in height. It is estimated to represent close to 90% of some fossil assemblages in Brazil, Tietea singularis stems usually are less than 20 cm in diameter, bearing four orthostichies of leaves in a decussate arrangement. The stem is surrounded by a ring of sclerenchyma that separates it from the root mantle. Leaf traces are polymeristelic in Tietea, while they are monomeristelic in Psaronius, the Tietea root mantle is composed of polyarch roots embedded in a parenchymatous tissue that is produced both by the stem and the roots. The preserved examples from Pedra do Fogo Formation, in the Maranhão Basin exhibit remarkable cell preservation, much of the recovered wood material from this formation is of the tree ferns Psaronius and T. singularis, with fewer examples of the fossilized stems being of Calamites. Conifers such as Dadoxylon are also found, Tietea singularis is also seen abundantly in the Motuca Formation, Parnaíba Basin in Filadélfia, Tocantins. In 2000, the área of the Motuca formation was transformed into a Natural monument, the Monumento Natural das Árvores Fossilizadas-MONAF
41.
Permian
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The Permian is a geologic period and system which spans 46.7 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period 298.9 million years ago, to the beginning of the Triassic Period 252.2 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozoic Era, the following Triassic Period belongs to the Mesozoic Era, the concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the city of Perm. The Permian witnessed the diversification of the early amniotes into the groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs. The world at the time was dominated by two known as Pangaea and Siberia, surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert within the continental interior, amniotes, who could better cope with these drier conditions, rose to dominance in place of their amphibian ancestors. The Permian ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest mass extinction in Earths history, in which nearly 90% of marine species and it would take well into the Triassic for life to recover from this catastrophe. Recovery from the Permian-Triassic extinction event was protracted, on land, the term Permian was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil, the region now lies in the Perm Krai of Russia. This could have in part caused the extinctions of marine species at the end of the period by severely reducing shallow coastal areas preferred by many marine organisms. During the Permian, all the Earths major landmasses were collected into a supercontinent known as Pangaea. The Cimmeria continent rifted away from Gondwana and drifted north to Laurasia, a new ocean was growing on its southern end, the Tethys Ocean, an ocean that would dominate much of the Mesozoic Era. Large continental landmass interiors experience climates with extreme variations of heat and cold, deserts seem to have been widespread on Pangaea. Such dry conditions favored gymnosperms, plants with seeds enclosed in a cover, over plants such as ferns that disperse spores in a wetter environment. The first modern trees appeared in the Permian, the climate in the Permian was quite varied. At the start of the Permian, the Earth was still in an Ice Age, glaciers receded around the mid-Permian period as the climate gradually warmed, drying the continents interiors. In the late Permian period, the drying continued although the temperature cycled between warm and cool cycles, Permian marine deposits are rich in fossil mollusks, echinoderms, and brachiopods. By the close of the Permian, trilobites and a host of other groups became extinct. Terrestrial life in the Permian included diverse plants, fungi, arthropods, the period saw a massive desert covering the interior of Pangaea
42.
Badlands
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Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith and they can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, buttes, mesas, hoodoos and they are often difficult to navigate by foot. Badlands often have a color display that alternates from dark black/blue coal stria to be bright clays to red scoria. Badlands are partially characterized by their thin to nonexistent regolith layers, the regolith profiles of badlands in arid climates are likely to resemble one another. In these regions, the layer is typically composed of silt, shale. This layer can form either a compact crust or a looser, Badlands such as those found in the Mancos Shale, the Brule Formation, the Chadron Formation, and the Dinosaur Provincial Park can be generally said to fit this profile. In less arid regions, however, the regolith profile can vary considerably, some badlands have no regolith layer whatsoever, capping instead in bare rock such as sandstone. Others have a regolith with a clay veneer, and still others have a biological crust of algae or lichens, in addition to lacking significant regolith, they also lack much vegetation. The lack of vegetation could very well be a result of the lack of a substantial regolith, the formation of badlands is a result of two processes, deposition and erosion. The process of deposition describes the accumulation, over time, of layers of mineral material, different environments such as seas, rivers, or tropical zones, deposit different sorts of clays, silts, and sand. Once the deposited sediments have solidified, the material becomes subject to erosion. It is sometimes taught that badlands erode at a steady rate of about 1 inch per year. In actuality, the processes by which the erosion responses take place vary depending on the precise interbedding of the sedimentary material. In 2010, researchers at Badlands National Park initiated a 3-year project to learn more about the erosion rate of the specific badlands found in that park. Some of the best-known badland formations can be found in Canada, in the U. S. Makoshika State Park in Montana and Badlands National Park in South Dakota together form a series of extensive badland formations. Among the Henry Mountains area, about 1500m above sea level, Cretaceous, another popular area of badland formations is Toadstool Geologic Park in the Oglala National Grassland of northwestern Nebraska. Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah are also badlands settings, a small badland called Hells Half-Acre is present in Natrona County, Wyoming
