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Les Sources Occultes 003/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédienne : Yôko Higashi

Décors : Alisha Henry

Maquillage : Alisha Henry

 

Lumières : Marquis

Musiques : La Science des Fous - Urgence Disk

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

(~5.9 centimeters across at its widest)

-----------------------------------

Igneous rocks form by the cooling and crystallization of hot, molten rock (magma and lava). If this happens at or near the land surface, or on the seafloor, they are extrusive igneous rocks. If this happens deep underground, they are intrusive igneous rocks. Most igneous rocks have a crystalline texture, but some are clastic, vesicular, frothy, or glassy.

 

Obsidian is readily identifiable. It is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Obsidian is natural glass - it lacks crystals, and therefore lacks minerals. Obsidian is typically black in color, but most obsidians have a felsic to intermediate chemistry. Felsic igneous rocks are generally light-colored, so a felsic obsidian seems a paradox. Mafic obsidians are scarce, but they are also black and glassy. Obsidian is sometimes referred to "glassy rhyolite".

 

Obsidian is an uncommon rock, but can be examined at several famous localities in America, such as Obsidian Cliff at the Yellowstone Hotspot (northwestern Wyoming, USA) and Big Obsidian Flow at the Newberry Volcano (central Oregon, USA).

 

Obsidian is moderately hard and has a conchoidal fracture (smooth and curved fracture surface), with sharp broken edges. Freshly-broken obsidian has the sharpest edges of any material known, natural or man-made (as seen under a scanning electron microscope).

 

Obsidian forms two ways: 1) very rapid cooling of lava, which prevents the formation of crystals; 2) cooling of high-viscosity lava, which prevents easy movement of atoms to form crystals. An example of obsidian that formed the first way is along the margins of basaltic lava flows at Kilaeua Volcano (Hawaii Hotspot, central Pacific Ocean). The obsidian sample seen here formed the second way.

 

Obsidian is unstable on geologic time scales - it will slowly convert to material that is not obsidian. A partially-converted obsidian is a distinctive rock called snowflake obsidian. The black portions of the rock seen here are rhyolitic obsidian (glass). The white patches ("snowflakes") are devitrification spots composed of cristobalite (SiO2, a polymorph of quartz).

 

Locality: unrecorded / undisclosed, but possibly from Twin Peaks, Utah, USA

 

Hygromiidae

Geomitrinae,Geomitrini

Discula,s.g.: Discula

Discula (Discula) polymorpha depressiuscula

(Lowe, 1831)

VII-2009

 

Portugal. Madeira Island.

 

Photo: Claude and Amandine EVANNO, 2015

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4,5-5,6 L IS USM, development in Lightroom.

 

Photographed on a birdwatchers' boat trip to the Farne Islands, Northumberland.

 

Uria aalge - Common Guillemot (Common Murre) - Trottellumme - Zeekoet - Guillemot de Troïl - Arao común - Uria - Sillgrissla - Lomvie - Nurzyk zwyczajny - . . .

 

Wikipedia (edited): "The common murre or common guillemot (Uria aalge) is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.

 

Guillemots are fast in direct flight but are not very agile. They can manoeuvre better underwater, where they typically dive to depths of 30–60m. They breed in colonies at high densities; nesting pairs may be in bodily contact with their neighbours. They make no nest; their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face.

 

Some individuals in the North Atlantic, known as "bridled guillemots", have a white ring around the eye extending back as a white line. This is not a distinct subspecies, but a polymorphism that becomes more common the farther north the birds breed."

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farne_Islands

www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4519-Uria-aalge

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_murre

 

Anthodites in a cave in Virginia, USA.

 

"Cave formations" in caves are technically called speleothem. Most speleothem is composed of travertine, a crystalline-textured chemical sedimentary rock composed of calcite (CaCO3). Travertine forms in most caves and at some springs by precipitation of crystals from water. Travertine speleothem occurs in a wide variety of forms. The most common variety of travertine speleothem is dripstone, which forms by the action of dripping water. The second-most common type of travertine speleothem is flowstone, which forms by precipitation of crystals from relatively thin films of flowing water. Flowstone typically has the appearance of a frozen waterfalls.

 

Shown above are anthodites, a scarce variety of speleothem that was first described from this very cave - Skyline Caverns in Virginia. Anthodites are radiating clusters of quill-like to slightly vermiform structures. Individual anthodite quills are hollow. Mineral analysis by White (1994) has shown that they are composed of aragonite (CaCO3), which is a polymorph of calcite. Some have recrystallized to calcite. The anthodites of Skyline Caverns were originally in sealed chambers in a mostly-sediment filled cave passage. During tourist trail construction, workers dug out sediments and encountered small chambers having common anthodites. They were subsequently named and described in the literature in 1949. The anthodite-bearing chambers were unusual in having near-vacuum conditions. Upon opening one chamber, a worker's hat was sucked in by the low air pressure.

 

When pure calcium carbonate, anthodites are white-colored. The yellows and browns seen above are from iron oxides.

 

Skyline Caverns is developed in structurally tilted carbonates (mixed dolostones and limestones) of the Rockdale Run Formation (Beekmantown Group, Lower Ordovician).

 

Locality: Skyline Caverns, Front Royal, central Warren County, northern Virginia, USA

-------------------

Reference cited:

 

White (1994) - The anthodites from Skyline Caverns, Virginia: the type locality. National Speleological Society Bulletin (Journal of Caves and Karst Studies) 56: 23-26.

 

Marcasite, whose name is derived from the Arabic word for pyrite, is a common and an attractive mineral. The two minerals, marcasite and pyrite, are often confused due to their similar characteristics. Marcasite is a polymorph of pyrite which means that it has the same chemistry as pyrite but a different structure and, therefore, different symmetry and crystal shapes. The marcasite/pyrite polymorh pair is probably the most famous polymorph pair next to the diamond/graphite pair. Adding to the confusion between marcasite and pyrite is the use of the word marcasite as a jewelry trade name. The term is applied to small polished and faceted stones that are inlayed in sterling silver. But even though they are called marcasite, they are actually pyrite.

Marcasite is difficult to distinguish from pyrite when a lack of distinctive crystal habits exists. In fact, many specimens have been wrongly identified as pyrite or marcasite by even experienced mineral collectors. For many years the iron sulfide "Suns" found in Illinois coal mines were called "Marcasite Suns" (also known as "Marcasite Dollars") until X-ray studies showed them to be mostly pyrite. They have a habit that looks like marcasite. The possibility that they were originally marcasite and then later transformed into pyrite is being studied. Now they are correctly called "Pyrite Suns", but the confusion still exists. Many marcasite specimens are distinctive enough to reveal their true identity and make interesting and beautiful display specimens.

 

The most famous habit for marcasite is its "cock's comb" twinned habit. The crystals appear like a roster's head crest, hence the name. The habit is very distinctive and can not be mistaken for any other mineral.

 

Marcasite has been known to pseudomorph other minerals. A pseudomorph is an atom by atom replacement of one mineral's chemistry for another. If done subtly, the replacement can leave the old mineral's shape intact. The effect is one mineral in the shape of another, hence the term pseudomorph (Latin for false shape). Marcasite has pseudomorphed pyrite, gypsum, fluorite and others. At other times marcasite is pseudomorphed itself into the iron oxide mineral goethite. Often the replacement is only peripheral and leaves a thin skin of iron oxides on the crystals. These iron oxides are seen as an iridescence sheen and can provide marcasite specimens with quite an attractive and colorful appearance. These oxides may also have a positive effect in slowing marcasite's unfortunate deterioration.

 

Over a period of years, marcasite will oxidize in collections, freeing sulfur which forms sulfuric acid. The acid will then attack the paper label and even the cardboard box holding the specimen. Over a period of decades, most marcasite specimens will have disintegrated into an undesirable dust along with deteriorated paper scraps. A sulfur smell released during this reaction is often the easiest characteristic distinguishing Marcasite from Pyrite. The reaction is triggered by exposure to air and is an exothermic reaction, meaning that the reaction releases heat. This does not mean that marcasite hand specimens will feel warm to the touch, but in some marcasite rich portions of certain mines the mine walls would get too hot to touch because of this reaction. Ironically, specimens with iridescent oxide coatings have shown a resistance to deterioration and seem to survive longer than "fresh" maracasites. Either way marcasite is an interesting and attractive mineral and even with the slow deterioration can be a pleasure to own for many many years.

 

Marcasite can be formed as both a primary or a secondary mineral. It typically forms under low-temperature highly acidic conditions. It occurs in sedimentary rocks (shales, limestones and low grade coals) as well as in low temperature hydrothermal veins. Commonly associated minerals include pyrite, pyrrhotite, galena, sphalerite, fluorite, dolomite and calcite.[1]

 

As a primary mineral it forms nodules, concretions and crystals in a variety of sedimentary rock, such as at Dover, Kent, England, where it forms as sharp individual crystals and crystal groups, and nodules (similar to those shown here) in chalk.

 

As a secondary mineral it forms by chemical alteration of a primary mineral such as pyrrhotite or chalcopyrite.

 

Marcasite reacts more readily than pyrite under conditions of high humidity. The product of this disintegration is iron(II) sulfate and sulfuric acid. The hydrous iron sulfate forms a white powder consisting of the mineral melanterite, FeSO4·7H2O.[5]

 

This disintegration of marcasite in mineral collections is known as "pyrite decay". When a specimen goes through pyrite decay, the marcasite reacts with moisture and oxygen in the air, the sulfur oxidizing and combining with water to produce sulfuric acid that attacks other sulfide minerals and mineral labels. Low humidity (less than 60%) storage conditions prevents or slows the reaction.[6]

Les Sources Occultes 004/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédiens : Anne-Sophie Farcy et Sydney Ehrmann

Prises de vue : Laurent Courau

Maquillage : Alisha Henry

Montage et post-production : Laurent Courau

 

Musique : La Science des Fous / Urgence Disk

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

Chrysotile asbestos veins in serpentinized komatiite in the Precambrian of Ontario, Canada.

 

Komatiites are very rare, magnesium-rich, extrusive, ultramafic igneous rocks. They are named after the Komati River Valley in South Africa, the type locality. Komatiite is an exceedingly rare type of lava. No volcano on Earth erupts this material today. Komatiites are essentially restricted to the Archean (4.55 to 2.5 billion years ago). Experimental evidence has shown that komatiite lavas, when originally erupted, were considerably hotter (~1600º C) than any modern lava type on Earth. This indicates that Earth’s mantle was much hotter than now. Other geologic evidence also indicates that early Earth’s heat flux was much higher than today’s.

 

Komatiite lava had a very low viscosity - it could flow like an ultradense gas. This property permitted the solidification of some individual lava flows that are only 1 cm thick.

 

The classic texture of komatiites is spinifex texture, named after clumps of long, spiky (& painful!) grasses. Komatiites with spinifex texture have short to long blades or plates of olivine mixed with smaller-scale blades of pyroxene.

 

All Archean komatiites are metamorphosed - the original igneous mineralogy (olivine, pyroxene, minor chromite, etc.) is gone to mostly gone. Such rocks are best termed metakomatiites, but the prefix “meta-” is usually not specified in writing.

 

Komatiites have economic significance, as many are closely associated with copper-nickel minerals (chalcopyrite & pentlandite), plus minor platinum-group elements, arsenides, bismuthides, and maybe a little gold and silver. Komatiites are a world-class source of nickel in Canada and Western Australia.

 

The outcrop seen here is part of a komatiite "lava lake" next to the Potter Mine in Ontario, Canada. This is near the world-famous Pyke Hill locality, which has numerous, thin komatiite lava flows. The rocks in the Potter Mine-Pyke Hill area are part of the Kidd-Munro Assemblage, which consists of ultramafic and mafic volcanic rocks intruded by mafic to ultramafic dikes and sill-like bodies. Minor felsic volcanic rocks are also present. Volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits occur in the Kidd-Munro Assemblage - they have been mined at the Texas Gulf Mine and the Potter Mine.

 

The rocks at this particular site were originally interpreted as part of a relatively thick komatiite lava lake, the last feature of a volcanic eruption. A newer interpretation says that this is a series of thick komatiite sheet flows (at least 6) in a paleo-depression. A thin lava lake may have originally capped the succession.

 

This is an exposure of serpentinized komatiite. The light-colored linear features running through the rock are "veins" of asbestos. There are several minerals colloquially known as "asbestos". The most common is "white asbestos", which is a mineral called chrysotile. It is one of three polymorphs of serpentine (= magnesium hydroxy-silicate, Mg3Si2O5(OH)4). Other varieties include “blue asbestos” (= crocidolite amphibole) and “brown asbestos” (= amosite amphibole). Chrysotile serpentine has a whitish to greenish color, a silky luster, and fibrous fracture.

 

Stratigraphy: Upper Komatiitic Unit, Kidd-Munro Assemblage, Abitibi Greenstone Belt, lower Neoarchean, 2.711-2.717 Ga

 

Locality: "Lava Lake" exposure outcrop near dirt road, southwest of the Potter Mine, north of Route 101, east-northeast of Matheson & south of the western end of Lake Abitibi & ~83 kilometers east of the city of Timmins, Munro Township, southern Cochrane District, eastern Ontario, southeastern Canada (~vicinity of 48° 35' 50.93" North latitude, 80° 12' 50.97" West longitude)

-------------------------

For photos of chrysotile serpentine/white asbestos, see:

www.jsjgeology.net/Serpentine.htm

and

www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=975

 

Les Sources Occultes 004/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédiens : Anne-Sophie Farcy et Sydney Ehrmann

Prises de vue : Laurent Courau

Maquillage : Alisha Henry

Montage et post-production : Laurent Courau

 

Musique : La Science des Fous / Urgence Disk

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

Illustration for a comparative ecophylogenetic analysis of local myrmecofaunas, based on r/K selection theory and intra / interspecific parabiosis / lestobiosis, particularly focused on allochthonous and invasive species.

 

[Camponotus Mayr 1861: 1,083+†29 (IT: 19+†0) spp (41.2-0.0 mya)]

 

Parabiotic of Crematogaster scutellaris, Lasius emarginatus, Lasius lasioides, Pheidole pallidula, Solenopsis fugax, Tapinoma magnum.

 

Camponotus is an extremely large and complex, globally distributed genus. At present, nearly 500 sspp belonging to 45 sgg have been described and it could well be the largest ant genus of all. The enormous species richness, high levels of intraspecific and geographic variation and polymorphism render the taxonomy of Camponotus one of the most complex and difficult. Revisionary studies are generally confined to species groups and/or small geographical regions. These ants live in a variety of habitats and microhabitats and the sheer size of the genus makes any characterisation of their biology challenging. Nests are built in the ground, in rotten branches or twigs, or rarely into living wood and most spp possess a highly generalistic diet.

 

REFERENCES

 

P. Klimeš & al. 2022: Camponotini phylogeny.

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

Instituto Bernabeu, 2º Premio obtenido en la American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2012. Androgen receptor polymorphisms are associated with poor ovarian response

The 56 Full Sized Morphs Are:

01 Blaze a Trail | 02 Pearly King Morph | 03 The Messenger Morph | 04 The Power of Morphing Communication | 05 Morph Over, There's Room for Two! | 06 Morph into the Piñataverse | 07 Morpheus | 08 Apart Together | 09 London Parklife | 10 On Guard | 11 Mr Create | 12 Morph's Inspirational Dungarees | 13 Cactus Morph | 14 Forget-Me-Not | 15 Gingerbread Morph I 16 Totally Morphomatic! | 17 Dance-off Morph I 18 The Bard I 19 Mondrian Morph | 20 Morph Whizz Kidz Argonaut | 21 It's Raining Morphs! Halleujah! | 22 Messy Morph | 23 I Spy Morph | 24 Astromorph | 25 Make Your Mark | 26 Roll With It | 27 Morph and Friends Explore London | 28 Tartan Trailblazer | 29 London Collage | 30 Peace Love and Morph | 31 Midas Morph | 32 Freedom | 33 Good Vibes | 34 Tiger Morph | 35 Maximus Morpheus Londinium | 36 Chocks Away! | 37 Morph! It's the Wrong Trousers! | 38 Diverse-City | 39 Apples and Pears | 40 Morphlowers Please! | 41 Cyborg Morph | 42 Pride Morph | 43 The London Man | 44 Looking After the Ocean | 45 Rock Star! | 46 Wheelie | 47 Gentlemorph | 48 Polymorphism | 49 Whizz Bang! | 50 Stay Frosty | 51 Mmmmmmmoprh! | 52 Swashbuckler | 53 Morph Target | 54 Canary Morph | 55 Morph the Yeoman Guard | 56 Fish Ahoy!

 

The 23 Mini Morphs Are:

01 Neville | 02 Messy Morph | 03 Meta-MORPH-osis | 04 Morley the Morph - Ready to Board | 05 Near and Far | 06 Bright Ideas | 07 Creativity Rocks! | 08 Growing Together | 10 Many Hands Make Valence | 11 Mr. Tayo Shnubbub 'The Wellbeing Hero' | 12 Captain Compass I 13 Hands-On & Hands-Up | 14 This is Us | 15 The Adventures of Morph | 16 Our School | 17 Riverside Spirit | 18 Morpheby | 19 GRIT | 20 Happiness is an Inside Job | 21 Growing Together in Learning and in Faith | 22 Look for the Light I 23 Bringing Great Energy and Spirit to Make Things Happen

The 56 Full Sized Morphs Are:

01 Blaze a Trail | 02 Pearly King Morph | 03 The Messenger Morph | 04 The Power of Morphing Communication | 05 Morph Over, There's Room for Two! | 06 Morph into the Piñataverse | 07 Morpheus | 08 Apart Together | 09 London Parklife | 10 On Guard | 11 Mr Create | 12 Morph's Inspirational Dungarees | 13 Cactus Morph | 14 Forget-Me-Not | 15 Gingerbread Morph I 16 Totally Morphomatic! | 17 Dance-off Morph I 18 The Bard I 19 Mondrian Morph | 20 Morph Whizz Kidz Argonaut | 21 It's Raining Morphs! Halleujah! | 22 Messy Morph | 23 I Spy Morph | 24 Astromorph | 25 Make Your Mark | 26 Roll With It | 27 Morph and Friends Explore London | 28 Tartan Trailblazer | 29 London Collage | 30 Peace Love and Morph | 31 Midas Morph | 32 Freedom | 33 Good Vibes | 34 Tiger Morph | 35 Maximus Morpheus Londinium | 36 Chocks Away! | 37 Morph! It's the Wrong Trousers! | 38 Diverse-City | 39 Apples and Pears | 40 Morphlowers Please! | 41 Cyborg Morph | 42 Pride Morph | 43 The London Man | 44 Looking After the Ocean | 45 Rock Star! | 46 Wheelie | 47 Gentlemorph | 48 Polymorphism | 49 Whizz Bang! | 50 Stay Frosty | 51 Mmmmmmmoprh! | 52 Swashbuckler | 53 Morph Target | 54 Canary Morph | 55 Morph the Yeoman Guard | 56 Fish Ahoy!

 

The 23 Mini Morphs Are:

01 Neville | 02 Messy Morph | 03 Meta-MORPH-osis | 04 Morley the Morph - Ready to Board | 05 Near and Far | 06 Bright Ideas | 07 Creativity Rocks! | 08 Growing Together | 10 Many Hands Make Valence | 11 Mr. Tayo Shnubbub 'The Wellbeing Hero' | 12 Captain Compass I 13 Hands-On & Hands-Up | 14 This is Us | 15 The Adventures of Morph | 16 Our School | 17 Riverside Spirit | 18 Morpheby | 19 GRIT | 20 Happiness is an Inside Job | 21 Growing Together in Learning and in Faith | 22 Look for the Light I 23 Bringing Great Energy and Spirit to Make Things Happen

‘Ōhi‘a growing in the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, Hawaii Island, Hawaii. Puu Huluhulu visible in the distance. Few ‘ōhi‘a have colonized the fresh lava flows above this elevation on this side of Mauna Loa.

Aragonite cave pearls from Austria. (Wayne State University collection, Detroit, Michigan, USA)

 

A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 6100 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.

 

The carbonate minerals all contain one or more carbonate (CO3-2) anions.

 

Aragonite has the same chemistry as calcite - it is calcium carbonate (CaCO3). However, aragonite has a different molecular structure - the atoms are packed differently. Different minerals having the same chemical formula are called "polymorphs" (another good example is graphite and diamond - both are carbon, C).

 

Unlike calcite, aragonite forms crystals in the orthorhombic class. Many aragonite crystals are acicular (needle-like) or pseudohexagonal. The latter is the result of six orthorhombic prisms growing parallel to each other. The sample seen here is a radiating cluster of pseudohexagonal, cyclic-twinned aragonite masses.

 

Aragonite is slightly harder than calcite, at H=3.5 to 4, occurs in many colors, and easily bubbles in acid. Aragonite is a little bit more dense than calcite, due to closer packing of atoms.

 

Most modern seashells and coral skeletons are composed of the aragonite. Whitish-colored lime sand beaches in the world are aragonitic. Occasionally, "whitings" are seen in shallow, warm ocean environments. Whitings (cloudy, milky seawater) turn out to have numerous tiny, hair-like needles of aragonite.

 

In the rock record, aragonitic or aragonite-rich sediments convert to calcite over time. Cenozoic-aged carbonate sedimentary rocks are often aragonitic. Mesozoic- and Paleozoic-aged carbonates are almost always calcitic. Many ancient fossils have had their aragonitic shells dissolved away. Ancient shells that were originally calcitic are often still well preserved.

 

Seen here are aragonitic cave pearls, a type of speleothem ("cave formation"). Cave pearls are spherical to subspherical to irregularly-shaped and concentrically-layered. They form as minerals precipitate around tiny loose grains in shallow cave pools that are continuously agitated by dripping water. Some cave pearls are loose, while others get cemented to the underlying substrate or to adjacent cave pearls.

 

Locality: unrecorded / undisclosed site at or near the town of Eisenerz, northern Styria, central Austria

-----------------

Photo gallery of aragonite:

www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=307

 

JML02922

 

Basides cylindriques, élargies vers l’apex, à 4 stérigmates, 25-37 x 6-7 um

Spores ellipsoïdes à étroitement citriformes, avec une grosse guttule fugace, hyalines, inamyloïdes, cyanophiles, 6-8,5 x 3,5-5 µm, 7,5 x 4,2 µm en moyenne, N.: 25, Q: 1,78

Cheilocystides polymorphes, cylindriques, clavées, ventrues, avec terminaisons apicales étroitement cylindriques de longueur variable, jusqu’à 90 µm de longueur

Pleurocystides absentes

Trame lamellaire ± régulière, formée d’hyphes souvent renflées et d’aspect parfois celluleux, dextrinoïdes, jusqu’à 23 µm de diam.

Piléitrame vaguement celluleuse, dextrinoïde

Pileipellis formé de longs poils (soies) cylindriques, aigus à l’apex, à paroi jusqu’à 3-4 um d’épaisseur, faussement septées par anastomose des parois, ocre brunâtre à brun roussâtre, dextrinoïdes, négatives en KOH, jusqu’à 875 µm x 11 µm à la base, et d’hyphes à terminaisons clavées à cylindriques, brunes, entre les poils piléiques

Stipitipellis formé de poils semblables à ceux du pileipellis arrivant d’hyphes parallèles

 

Recherche, révision des travaux et identification: R. Labbé

Étude microscopique et microphotographie: J. Labrecque

 

Macroscopie:

www.flickr.com/photos/19369983@N06/9641831562/in/photostream

  

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4,5-5,6 L IS USM, development in Lightroom.

 

Photographed on a birdwatchers' boat trip to the Farne Islands, Northumberland.

 

Uria aalge - Common Guillemot (Common Murre) - Trottellumme - Zeekoet - Guillemot de Troïl - Arao común - Uria - Sillgrissla - Lomvie - Nurzyk zwyczajny - . . .

 

Wikipedia (edited): "The common murre or common guillemot (Uria aalge) is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.

 

Guillemots are fast in direct flight but are not very agile. They can manoeuvre better underwater, where they typically dive to depths of 30–60m. They breed in colonies at high densities; nesting pairs may be in bodily contact with their neighbours. They make no nest; their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face.

 

Some individuals in the North Atlantic, known as "bridled guillemots", have a white ring around the eye extending back as a white line. This is not a distinct subspecies, but a polymorphism that becomes more common the farther north the birds breed."

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farne_Islands

www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4519-Uria-aalge

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_murre

 

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

(~5.7 centimeters across at its widest)

---------------------------------------------------------

Igneous rocks form by the cooling & crystallization of hot, molten rock (magma & lava). If this happens at or near the land surface, or on the seafloor, they are extrusive igneous rocks. If this happens deep underground, they are intrusive igneous rocks. Most igneous rocks have a crystalline texture, but some are clastic, vesicular, frothy, or glassy.

 

Obsidian is readily identifiable. It is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Obsidian is natural glass - it lacks crystals, and therefore lacks minerals. Obsidian is typically black in color, but most obsidians have a felsic to intermediate chemistry. Felsic igneous rocks are generally light-colored, so a felsic obsidian seems a paradox. Mafic obsidians are scarce, but they are also black and glassy.

 

Obsidian is an uncommon rock, but can be examined at several famous localities in America, such as Obsidian Cliff at the Yellowstone Hotspot (northwestern Wyoming, USA) and Big Obsidian Flow at the Newberry Volcano (central Oregon, USA).

 

Obsidian is moderately hard and has a conchoidal fracture (smooth and curved fracture surface), with sharp broken edges. Freshly-broken obsidian has the sharpest edges of any material known, natural or man-made (as seen under a scanning electron microscope).

 

Obsidian forms two ways: 1) very rapid cooling of lava, which prevents the formation of crystals; 2) cooling of high-viscosity lava, which prevents easy movement of atoms to form crystals. An example of obsidian that formed the first way is along the margins of basaltic lava flows at Kilaeua Volcano (Hawaii Hotspot, central Pacific Ocean). The obsidian sample seen here formed the second way.

 

Obsidian is unstable on geologic time scales - it will slowly convert to material that is not obsidian. A partially-converted obsidian is a distinctive rock called snowflake obsidian. The black portions of the rock seen here are rhyolitic obsidian (glass). The white patches ("snowflakes") are devitrification spots composed of cristobalite (SiO2, a polymorph of quartz).

Les Sources Occultes 005/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédiens : Vigi Lust, Yvan

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

Anthodites in a cave in Virginia, USA.

 

"Cave formations" in caves are technically called speleothem. Most speleothem is composed of travertine, a crystalline-textured chemical sedimentary rock composed of calcite (CaCO3). Travertine forms in most caves and at some springs by precipitation of crystals from water. Travertine speleothem occurs in a wide variety of forms. The most common variety of travertine speleothem is dripstone, which forms by the action of dripping water. The second-most common type of travertine speleothem is flowstone, which forms by precipitation of crystals from relatively thin films of flowing water. Flowstone typically has the appearance of a frozen waterfalls.

 

Shown above are anthodites, a scarce variety of speleothem that was first described from this very cave - Skyline Caverns in Virginia. Anthodites are radiating clusters of quill-like to slightly vermiform structures. Individual anthodite quills are hollow. Mineral analysis by White (1994) has shown that they are composed of aragonite (CaCO3), which is a polymorph of calcite. Some have recrystallized to calcite. The anthodites of Skyline Caverns were originally in sealed chambers in a mostly-sediment filled cave passage. During tourist trail construction, workers dug out sediments and encountered small chambers having common anthodites. They were subsequently named and described in the literature in 1949. The anthodite-bearing chambers were unusual in having near-vacuum conditions. Upon opening one chamber, a worker's hat was sucked in by the low air pressure.

 

When pure calcium carbonate, anthodites are white-colored. The yellows and browns seen above are from iron oxides. The green coloration is from algae that grows in tourist trail lighting.

 

Skyline Caverns is developed in structurally tilted carbonates (mixed dolostones and limestones) of the Rockdale Run Formation (Beekmantown Group, Lower Ordovician).

 

Locality: Skyline Caverns, Front Royal, central Warren County, northern Virginia, USA

-------------------

Reference cited:

 

White (1994) - The anthodites from Skyline Caverns, Virginia: the type locality. National Speleological Society Bulletin (Journal of Caves and Karst Studies) 56: 23-26.

 

As borboletas são insectos da ordem Lepidoptera classificados nas super-famílias Hesperioidea e Papilionoidea, que constituem o grupo informal Rhopalocera.

 

As borboletas têm dois pares de asas membranosas cobertas de escamas e peças bucais adaptadas a sucção. Distinguem-se das traças (mariposas) pelas antenas rectilíneas que terminam numa bola, pelos hábitos de vida diurnos, pela metamorfose que decorre dentro de uma crisálida rígida e pelo abdómen fino e alongado. Quando em repouso, as borboletas dobram as suas asas para cima.

 

As borboletas são importantes polinizadores de diversas espécies de plantas.

 

O ciclo de vida das borboletas engloba as seguintes etapas:

 

1) ovo→ fase pré-larval

2) larva→ chamada também de lagarta ou taturana,

3) pupa→ que se desenvolve dentro da crisálida (ou casulo)

4) imago→ fase adulta

_______________________

 

A butterfly is any of several groups of mainly day-flying insects of the order Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, butterflies' life cycle consists of four parts, egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. Butterflies comprise the true butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea). All the many other families within the Lepidoptera are referred to as moths.

 

Butterflies exhibit polymorphism, mimicry and aposematism. Some, like the Monarch, will migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants. Butterflies are important economically as agents of pollination. The caterpillars of some butterflies eat harmful insects. A few species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees. Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.

Growing on the rim of a Balinese urn. Oxley Nursery, Brisbane.

Les Sources Occultes 005/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédiens : Vigi Lust, Yvan

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

Les Sources Occultes - Teaser /999

 

Réalisation Laurent Courau sur un scénario de thierry Ehrmann

blog.ehrmann.org/films2/les-sources-occultes-teaser.html

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers... Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offre aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'Esprit de la Salamandre...

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

Anthodites in a cave in Virginia, USA.

 

"Cave formations" in caves are technically called speleothem. Most speleothem is composed of travertine, a crystalline-textured chemical sedimentary rock composed of calcite (CaCO3). Travertine forms in most caves and at some springs by precipitation of crystals from water. Travertine speleothem occurs in a wide variety of forms. The most common variety of travertine speleothem is dripstone, which forms by the action of dripping water. The second-most common type of travertine speleothem is flowstone, which forms by precipitation of crystals from relatively thin films of flowing water. Flowstone typically has the appearance of a frozen waterfalls.

 

Shown above are anthodites, a scarce variety of speleothem that was first described from this very cave - Skyline Caverns in Virginia. Anthodites are radiating clusters of quill-like to slightly vermiform structures. Individual anthodite quills are hollow. Mineral analysis by White (1994) has shown that they are composed of aragonite (CaCO3), which is a polymorph of calcite. Some have recrystallized to calcite. The anthodites of Skyline Caverns were originally in sealed chambers in a mostly-sediment filled cave passage. During tourist trail construction, workers dug out sediments and encountered small chambers having common anthodites. They were subsequently named and described in the literature in 1949. The anthodite-bearing chambers were unusual in having near-vacuum conditions. Upon opening one chamber, a worker's hat was sucked in by the low air pressure.

 

When pure calcium carbonate, anthodites are white-colored. The yellows and browns seen above are from iron oxides. The green coloration is from algae that grows in tourist trail lighting.

 

Skyline Caverns is developed in structurally tilted carbonates (mixed dolostones and limestones) of the Rockdale Run Formation (Beekmantown Group, Lower Ordovician).

 

Locality: Skyline Caverns, Front Royal, central Warren County, northern Virginia, USA

-------------------

Reference cited:

 

White (1994) - The anthodites from Skyline Caverns, Virginia: the type locality. National Speleological Society Bulletin (Journal of Caves and Karst Studies) 56: 23-26.

 

Les Sources Occultes 005/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédiens : Vigi Lust, Yvan

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

The subrounded cavities are lithophysae - they formed before the rock completely solidified. The original lava flow had some subspherical structures known as spherulites, composed of glassy to cryptocrystalline material (many felsic extrusive igneous rocks have these). Expanding gases in the spherulites destroyed this material, resulting in partially empty spaces.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

Scientists gleaned data from Populus trees in an ORNL greenhouse as part of the largest-ever single nucleotide polymorphism dataset of the species' genetic variations. The information can be useful in biofuels, materials science and secondary plant metabolism research.

 

This is an illustration of the extrem polymorphism between minor and super-major of the same colony in the ant Pheidologeton.

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

As borboletas são insectos da ordem Lepidoptera classificados nas super-famílias Hesperioidea e Papilionoidea, que constituem o grupo informal Rhopalocera.

 

As borboletas têm dois pares de asas membranosas cobertas de escamas e peças bucais adaptadas a sucção. Distinguem-se das traças (mariposas) pelas antenas rectilíneas que terminam numa bola, pelos hábitos de vida diurnos, pela metamorfose que decorre dentro de uma crisálida rígida e pelo abdómen fino e alongado. Quando em repouso, as borboletas dobram as suas asas para cima.

 

As borboletas são importantes polinizadores de diversas espécies de plantas.

 

O ciclo de vida das borboletas engloba as seguintes etapas:

 

1) ovo→ fase pré-larval

2) larva→ chamada também de lagarta ou taturana,

3) pupa→ que se desenvolve dentro da crisálida (ou casulo)

4) imago→ fase adulta

_______________________

 

A butterfly is any of several groups of mainly day-flying insects of the order Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, butterflies' life cycle consists of four parts, egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. Butterflies comprise the true butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea). All the many other families within the Lepidoptera are referred to as moths.

 

Butterflies exhibit polymorphism, mimicry and aposematism. Some, like the Monarch, will migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants. Butterflies are important economically as agents of pollination. The caterpillars of some butterflies eat harmful insects. A few species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees. Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.

Les Sources Occultes 003/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédienne : Yôko Higashi

Décors : Alisha Henry

Maquillage : Alisha Henry

 

Lumières : Marquis

Musiques : La Science des Fous - Urgence Disk

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

The 56 Full Sized Morphs Are:

01 Blaze a Trail | 02 Pearly King Morph | 03 The Messenger Morph | 04 The Power of Morphing Communication | 05 Morph Over, There's Room for Two! | 06 Morph into the Piñataverse | 07 Morpheus | 08 Apart Together | 09 London Parklife | 10 On Guard | 11 Mr Create | 12 Morph's Inspirational Dungarees | 13 Cactus Morph | 14 Forget-Me-Not | 15 Gingerbread Morph I 16 Totally Morphomatic! | 17 Dance-off Morph I 18 The Bard I 19 Mondrian Morph | 20 Morph Whizz Kidz Argonaut | 21 It's Raining Morphs! Halleujah! | 22 Messy Morph | 23 I Spy Morph | 24 Astromorph | 25 Make Your Mark | 26 Roll With It | 27 Morph and Friends Explore London | 28 Tartan Trailblazer | 29 London Collage | 30 Peace Love and Morph | 31 Midas Morph | 32 Freedom | 33 Good Vibes | 34 Tiger Morph | 35 Maximus Morpheus Londinium | 36 Chocks Away! | 37 Morph! It's the Wrong Trousers! | 38 Diverse-City | 39 Apples and Pears | 40 Morphlowers Please! | 41 Cyborg Morph | 42 Pride Morph | 43 The London Man | 44 Looking After the Ocean | 45 Rock Star! | 46 Wheelie | 47 Gentlemorph | 48 Polymorphism | 49 Whizz Bang! | 50 Stay Frosty | 51 Mmmmmmmoprh! | 52 Swashbuckler | 53 Morph Target | 54 Canary Morph | 55 Morph the Yeoman Guard | 56 Fish Ahoy!

 

The 23 Mini Morphs Are:

01 Neville | 02 Messy Morph | 03 Meta-MORPH-osis | 04 Morley the Morph - Ready to Board | 05 Near and Far | 06 Bright Ideas | 07 Creativity Rocks! | 08 Growing Together | 10 Many Hands Make Valence | 11 Mr. Tayo Shnubbub 'The Wellbeing Hero' | 12 Captain Compass I 13 Hands-On & Hands-Up | 14 This is Us | 15 The Adventures of Morph | 16 Our School | 17 Riverside Spirit | 18 Morpheby | 19 GRIT | 20 Happiness is an Inside Job | 21 Growing Together in Learning and in Faith | 22 Look for the Light I 23 Bringing Great Energy and Spirit to Make Things Happen

Opening night of the show "Polymorph" by Katya Usvitsky, at The One Well, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC. See press coverage here. The work will be on display/for sale through November 4th.

 

Artist's website.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4,5-5,6 L IS USM, development in Lightroom.

 

Photographed on a birdwatchers' boat trip to the Farne Islands, Northumberland.

 

Uria aalge - Common Guillemot (Common Murre) - Trottellumme - Zeekoet - Guillemot de Troïl - Arao común - Uria - Sillgrissla - Lomvie - Nurzyk zwyczajny - . . .

 

Wikipedia (edited): "The common murre or common guillemot (Uria aalge) is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.

 

Guillemots are fast in direct flight but are not very agile. They can manoeuvre better underwater, where they typically dive to depths of 30–60m. They breed in colonies at high densities; nesting pairs may be in bodily contact with their neighbours. They make no nest; their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face.

 

Some individuals in the North Atlantic, known as "bridled guillemots", have a white ring around the eye extending back as a white line. This is not a distinct subspecies, but a polymorphism that becomes more common the farther north the birds breed."

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farne_Islands

www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4519-Uria-aalge

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_murre

 

The 56 Full Sized Morphs Are:

01 Blaze a Trail | 02 Pearly King Morph | 03 The Messenger Morph | 04 The Power of Morphing Communication | 05 Morph Over, There's Room for Two! | 06 Morph into the Piñataverse | 07 Morpheus | 08 Apart Together | 09 London Parklife | 10 On Guard | 11 Mr Create | 12 Morph's Inspirational Dungarees | 13 Cactus Morph | 14 Forget-Me-Not | 15 Gingerbread Morph I 16 Totally Morphomatic! | 17 Dance-off Morph I 18 The Bard I 19 Mondrian Morph | 20 Morph Whizz Kidz Argonaut | 21 It's Raining Morphs! Halleujah! | 22 Messy Morph | 23 I Spy Morph | 24 Astromorph | 25 Make Your Mark | 26 Roll With It | 27 Morph and Friends Explore London | 28 Tartan Trailblazer | 29 London Collage | 30 Peace Love and Morph | 31 Midas Morph | 32 Freedom | 33 Good Vibes | 34 Tiger Morph | 35 Maximus Morpheus Londinium | 36 Chocks Away! | 37 Morph! It's the Wrong Trousers! | 38 Diverse-City | 39 Apples and Pears | 40 Morphlowers Please! | 41 Cyborg Morph | 42 Pride Morph | 43 The London Man | 44 Looking After the Ocean | 45 Rock Star! | 46 Wheelie | 47 Gentlemorph | 48 Polymorphism | 49 Whizz Bang! | 50 Stay Frosty | 51 Mmmmmmmoprh! | 52 Swashbuckler | 53 Morph Target | 54 Canary Morph | 55 Morph the Yeoman Guard | 56 Fish Ahoy!

 

The 23 Mini Morphs Are:

01 Neville | 02 Messy Morph | 03 Meta-MORPH-osis | 04 Morley the Morph - Ready to Board | 05 Near and Far | 06 Bright Ideas | 07 Creativity Rocks! | 08 Growing Together | 10 Many Hands Make Valence | 11 Mr. Tayo Shnubbub 'The Wellbeing Hero' | 12 Captain Compass I 13 Hands-On & Hands-Up | 14 This is Us | 15 The Adventures of Morph | 16 Our School | 17 Riverside Spirit | 18 Morpheby | 19 GRIT | 20 Happiness is an Inside Job | 21 Growing Together in Learning and in Faith | 22 Look for the Light I 23 Bringing Great Energy and Spirit to Make Things Happen

Chairlift @ Lollapalooza 2016, Grant Park, Chicago, IL, on Saturday, July 30, 2016.

 

Lollapalooza 2016 Setlist:

 

Look Up

Polymorphing

Amanaemonesia

I Belong in Your Arms

Show U Off

Romeo

Crying In Public

Moth to the Flame

Ch-Ching

Get Real

Les Sources Occultes 004/999

 

Un film de Laurent Courau, d'après un scénario de Thierry Ehrmann.

 

Comédiens : Anne-Sophie Farcy et Sydney Ehrmann

Prises de vue : Laurent Courau

Maquillage : Alisha Henry

Montage et post-production : Laurent Courau

 

Musique : La Science des Fous / Urgence Disk

 

© Les Amis de l'Esprit de la Salamandre 1999

 

Entre effroi et merveilles, une zone mouvante aux portes du futur et des enfers...

 

Les Sources Occultes vous entraînent au coeur d'un univers polymorphe dont les clés et les motifs se révéleront au fur et à mesure des épisodes de cette série de fictions. En attendant un final apocalyptique, au sens premier du terme, qui révélera la structure générale sous la forme d'un long-métrage...

 

Les Sources Occultes offrent aussi une nouvelle porte d'entrée dans le labyrinthe multidimensionnel de la Demeure du Chaos à celles et ceux qui postulent à notre casting, une occasion unique de pénétrer les arcanes de l'esprit de la Salamandre.

 

Secrets revealed of the Abode of Chaos (112 pages, adult only) >>>

University & Course: University of London, Goldsmiths College, BA Fine Art.

 

Medium: Mixed Media, Audio Visual Loop and Sculpture

 

Artist Profile: I’m interested in exploring the subject surrounding the polymorphic nature within the human consciousness condition through my art practice in new media involving various software programs and the computer interface. Thomas Naickomparambil professor of philosophy, defines the word polymorphic when paired with the term, ‘consciousness’:

 

…“our consciousness is not governed by strictly intellectual concerns most of the time. This is due to the fact that the human conscious is polymorphic in nature. Etymologically the term ‘polymorphism’ is derived from the two Greek words polus (many) and morphe (form). Consequently, the expression ‘polymorphism of human consciousness’ signifies the (many forms) of human consciousness. The different patterns of consciousness often do not have clear-cut and fixed boundaries. They can overlap, mix, conflict and interfere with each other.1

  

An example is when using the medium of 3-D animation software, I am aware of my presence in front of a computer as well as the disembodied perception of being embodied within the machine whilst building, modeling and moving around an object. Perhaps using new media and in particular the computer as an implement in art making allows for new possibilities representing a polymorphic consciousness resembling the critical theory of post-humanism that is clarified as a transition in human consciousness or an “embodied medium through which critical consciousness is manifested. A narrativised, textualised version of a human,” or in other words “a non-physical manifestation of self.”2 It is as if symbolically the idea of both polymorphic consciousness and post-humanism found in new media gave demise to my use of the paintbrush in which I perceive as a metaphor for (Renaissance) humanism. In his book, The Posthuman Condition Consciousness Beyond the Brain, artist and academic writer, Robert Pepperell eloquently puts it, that from the beginning of our existence we have attempted to “extend our physical abilities with tools”; this is the “extensionist” (post-human) view of human nature, “… where (Renaissance) humanists saw themselves as distinct beings in an antagonistic relationship with their surroundings, post-humans regard their own being as embodied in an extended technological world.”

 

Piece Description: In the current video and sculpture installation piece titled, Buddha Hand Lemon (Citron) and Young Girl in Los Angeles, I’m investigating further the notion of an immersive embodied space driven by an electronically mediated environment, yet I seek that ‘it does not take itself too seriously’ and has room to include a critical distance. In the discourses of immersive aesthetics complete illusory is ideal, but illusory is subjugated by it’s very nature as it is artificial and can never be real. Much like the city of Los Angeles that appears as a lush (man-made) paradise, but in actuality it is a desert. Also as in my past works, my concerns are related to a sense of cultural identity, which develops across race, class, gender and cultural disposition. I’m absorbed not solely in the facets of the occurrence of polymorphic consciousness, but the luminal negotiation in between these identities where other potentials may emerge.

  

There is a small location in Spain where Salamandra salamandra shows color polymorphism. Here we can find a whole range of morphs, going from whole black (as the one on the pic) to whole yellow (coming soon :3) with brownish forms in between.

Unfortunately, as soon as the new subspecies was announced, illegal catchings were performed to satisfy the demand for the illegal pet trade *. Preventing this is a must. This tiny and irreverent newt population must be protected, so we can go there in future generations and still see them!

 

* www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-advanced-newt-salamander-topi...

In this link we can see a post in Caudata.org where a proud owner of a couple alfredschmidti shows us 5 new babies....so beautiful but...how the hell did that couple alfredschimditi reach his home? This must be stopped!

 

Javier Abalos Alvarez

It's nice to finally have a phone with a camera good enough to use as a point-and-shoot. It's a Sony Z3 Compact, nice phone, dedicated camera button, really good editor. Not perfect but then I guess they wouldn't be able to sell their real P&S's if it was!

 

The snail is taken with a homemade macro lens I made from some old scrap lenses and a mount made out of Polymorph plastic - a fantastic thing that you put in nearly boiling water, can then mould into any shape you like, and when it cools it is incredibly tough - just like any normal ABS type plastic; so you can drill it and saw it and stuff too.

 

It's fantastic for homebrew lenses and attachments. I've only got 250g which is plenty, but you can get kilo bags for like 15 quid on eBay for larger projects.

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

Obsidian in the Pleistocene of Wyoming, USA.

 

Obsidian is a glassy-textured, extrusive igneous rock. Glassy-textured rocks have no crystals at all. They form by very rapid cooling of lava or by cooling of high-viscosity lava. Most obsidians form by the latter. Obsidian can be felsic, intermediate, mafic, or alkaline in chemistry. Most are felsic to intermediate.

 

A famous locality in North America is Obsidian Cliff at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It is a Pleistocene-aged lava flow with the chemistry of rhyolite (= a light-colored, felsic, aphanitic, extrusive igneous rock). The cliff itself shows columnar jointing. The rocks principally range from aphyric rhyolitic obsidian to partially devitrified rhyolitic obsidian. Lithophysae are sometimes present. Extremely small, microscopic crystals are present - they can be seen in thin sections. Some samples are reported to have small olivine phenocrysts. Small clusters of crystals, composed of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, are sometimes present.

 

Many of the whitish-colored spots and bands running through most Obsidian Cliff rock samples are areas of devitrification. Glass is unstable on geologic times scales and it slowly crystallizes. The light-colored spots and bands are now non-glassy. Spotted, partially devitrified obsidian is known by the rockhound term "snowflake obsidian" (see: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16561606417). The spots are composed of silica (SiO2), but are not quartz. Rather, they are composed of a polymorph of quartz - cristobalite.

 

The subrounded cavities are lithophysae - they formed before the rock completely solidified. The original lava flow had some subspherical structures known as spherulites, composed of glassy to cryptocrystalline material (many felsic extrusive igneous rocks have these). Expanding gases in the spherulites destroyed this material, resulting in partially empty spaces.

 

Stratigraphy: Roaring Mountain Member, Plateau Rhyolite, Upper Pleistocene, ~59 ka

 

Locality: loose boulder near the base of Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, USA

----------------------

Age & some lithologic info. from:

 

Wooton (2010) - Age and Petrogenesis of the Roaring Mountain Rhyolites, Yellowstone Volcanic Field, Wyoming. M.S. thesis. University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 296 pp.

 

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