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Pele's Hair
Pele's hair (closest modern Hawaiian translation: "") is a volcanic glass formation produced from cooled lava stretched into thin strands, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, or vigorous lava flows. It is named after Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes. Occurrence Mentions of this type of lava can be found in 18th Century Hawaiian newspapers where it is called "Lauoho o Pele," "Lauoho Pele," and "Lauoho ehuehu a Pele." Wind often carries the light fibers high into the air and to places several kilometers away from the vent. Strands of Pele's hair commonly gather on high places like treetops, radio antennas, and electric poles. Pele's hair has been produced by volcanoes around the world, for example in Nicaragua (Masaya), Italy ( Etna), Ethiopia ( Erta’ Ale), and Iceland, where it is known as ('witches' hair'). It is usually found in gaps in the ground, mostly near vents, skylights, ocean entry, or in corners where Pele's hair can accumulate. Touching P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Moss
Spanish moss (''Tillandsia usneoides'') is an Epiphyte, epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America (as far south as northern Patagonia), the Southern United States, and West Indies. It has been naturalized in Queensland (Australia). It is known as "grandpa's beard" in French Polynesia. It has the widest distribution of any Bromeliaceae, bromeliad. Most known in the United States, it commonly is found on the southern live oak (''Quercus virginiana'') and bald cypress (''Taxodium distichum'') in the lowlands, swamps, and marshes of the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states, from the coast of southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to southern Arkansas and Texas. While it superficially resembles its namesake, the lichen ''Usnea'', it is neither a lichen nor a moss (instead being a member of the bromeliad family, Bromeliaceae), and it is not nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plagioclase
Plagioclase ( ) is a series of Silicate minerals#Tectosilicates, tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more properly known as the plagioclase feldspar series. This was first shown by the German mineralogist Johann F. C. Hessel, Johann Friedrich Christian Hessel (1796–1872) in 1826. The series ranges from albite to anorthite endmembers (with respective compositions NaAlSi3O8 to CaAl2Si2O8), where sodium and calcium atoms can substitute for each other in the mineral's crystallography, crystal lattice structure. Plagioclase in hand samples is often identified by its polysynthetic crystal twinning or "phonograph record, record-groove" effect. Plagioclase is a major constituent mineral in Earth's crust and is consequently an important diagnostic tool in petrology for identifying the composition, origin and evolutio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eruption Products
A volcanic eruption occurs when material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure. Several types of volcanic eruptions have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often named after famous volcanoes where that type of behavior has been observed. Some volcanoes may exhibit only one characteristic type of eruption during a period of activity, while others may display an entire sequence of types all in one eruptive series. There are three main types of volcanic eruptions. Magmatic eruptions involve the decompression of gas within magma that propels it forward. Phreatic eruptions are driven by the superheating of steam due to the close proximity of magma. This type exhibits no magmatic release, instead causing the granulation of existing rock. Phreatomagmatic eruptions are driven by the direct interaction of magma and water, as opposed to phreatic eruptions, where no fresh magma reaches the surface. Within these broad eruptive types are several subtypes. The weakes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glass In Nature
Glass is an amorphous ( non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window panes, tableware, and optics. Some common objects made of glass are named after the material, e.g., a "glass" for drinking, "glasses" for vision correction, and a "magnifying glass". Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of the molten form. Some glasses such as volcanic glass are naturally occurring, and obsidian has been used to make arrowheads and knives since the Stone Age. Archaeological evidence suggests glassmaking dates back to at least 3600 BC in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Syria. The earliest known glass objects were beads, perhaps created accidentally during metalworking or the production of faience, which is a form of pottery using lead glazes. Due to its ease of formability into any shape, glass has been traditionally used for vessels, such as bowls, vases, bottles, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosaly Lopes
Rosaly M. C. Lopes (born January 8, 1957) is a planetary geologist, volcanologist, an author of numerous scientific papers and several books, as well as a proponent of education. Her major research interests are in planetary and terrestrial surface processes with an emphasis on volcanology. Life and scientific career Lopes was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and in her early life, lived near the neighborhood of Ipanema. Inspired in part by NASA's Poppy Northcutt, she moved to London in England in 1975 to study astronomy at the University of London. She graduated with honours in astronomy in 1978. During her final semester, she took a planetary science course with John Guest – and three weeks into the course, Mount Etna exploded. Lopes decided to change her field of study to volcanoes, on earth and in space. For her doctoral studies, she specialized in planetary geology and volcanology, completing her PhD in Planetary Science in 1986 with a thesis on comparing volcanic proce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pele's Curse
Pele's Curse is the belief that anything natively Hawaiian, such as sand, rock, or pumice, will bring bad luck on whoever takes it away from Hawaii. One version about the legend's genesis is this: a disgruntled park ranger, angry at the number of rocks that were being taken from the islands by visitors, said that Pele would curse them with bad luck should they take anything. Another version often told is that bus drivers, tired of the dirt and grime brought on their buses by the tourists' collection of rocks, started the story at the beginning of each tour to discourage the rock collecting. The myth has caught on, told as if it were an original Hawaiian taboo, and every year countless tourists send items back to Hawaii in order to escape the awful luck that Pele has caused them. So, although the legend itself is probably of twentieth-century origin, the removal of rocks as souvenirs is now frowned upon by Hawaiians. Also, it is illegal to remove minerals from within a U.S. nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glass Wool
Glass wool is an Thermal insulation, insulating material made from glass fiber arranged using a Binder (material), binder into a texture similar to wool. The process traps many small pockets of air between the glass, and these small air pockets result in high thermal insulation properties. Glass wool is produced in rolls or slabs, with different thermal and mechanical properties. It may also be produced as a material that can be sprayed or applied in place, on the surface to be insulated. The modern method for producing glass wool was invented by Games Slayter while he was working at the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. (Toledo, Ohio). He first applied for a patent for a new process to make glass wool in 1933. Principles of function Gases possess poor thermal conduction properties compared to liquids and solids and thus make good insulation material if they can be trapped in materials so that much of the heat that flows through the material is forced to flow through the gas. To further ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mineral Wool
Mineral wool is any fibrous material formed by spinning or drawing molten mineral or rock materials such as slag and ceramics. Applications of mineral wool include thermal insulation (as both structural insulation and pipe insulation), filtration, soundproofing, and hydroponic growth medium. Naming Mineral wool is also known as rock wool, mineral cotton, mineral fiber, man-made mineral fiber (MMMF), and man-made vitreous fiber (MMVF). Specific mineral wool products are stone wool and slag wool. Europe also includes glass wool which, together with ceramic fiber, are entirely artificial fibers that can be made into different shapes and are spiky to touch. History Slag wool was first made in 1840 in Wales by Edward Parry, "but no effort appears to have been made to confine the wool after production; consequently it floated about the works with the slightest breeze, and became so injurious to the men that the process had to be abandoned". A method of making mineral wool ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limu O Pele
Limu o Pele or Pele's seaweed ( Hawaiian, literally "seaweed of Pele" after Pele the Hawaiian fire goddess of volcanoes) is a geological term for thin sheets and subsequently shattered flakes of brownish-green to near-colorless volcanic glass lava spatter, commonly resembling seaweed in appearance, that have been erupted from a volcano. Limu o Pele is formed when water is forced into and trapped inside lava, as when waves wash over the top of the exposed flows of the molten rock. The water boils and is instantly converted to steam, expanding to form bubbles within the lava. The lava rapidly cools and solidifies as the bubbles grow. The volcanic glass bubbles burst and are dispersed by the wind, showering flakes of glass downwind. Limu o Pele has been found around subaerial littoral volcanic cones and also at submarine volcanoes, for example, on the summit of Kamaʻehuakanaloa (formerly Lōʻihi) seamount A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
