element or compound in tree bark that it burns with too much ash

In article <4416a0e1$1$168$[Only registered users see links. ].tele.dk>, Carsten
Troelsgaard wrote:
Wow.

--
Aidan Karley FGS
Aberdeen, Scotland,
Location: 57°10'11" N, 02°08'43" W (sub-tropical Aberdeen), 0.021233

Aidan Karley wrote:
Seconded... Cool page!

In sci.geo.geology, on Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:54:18 +0100,
Carsten Troelsgaard <[Only registered users see links. ]> sez:

I missed this earlier..

` General info on flint and chert
` [Only registered users see links. ]

` Quote
` Cryptocrystalline Quartz

` Cryptocrystalline quartz is simply quartz whose crystals are so small that
` they can only be seen with the aid of a high-power microscope. It is formed
` geologically from silica that has dissolved from silicate materials. Over
` geological time, this amorphous silica gel dehydrates to form microscopic
` crystals and eventually becomes what we know physically as rock.
` Cryptocrystalline quartz occurs in many varieties. These varieties have been
` named based on their color, opacity, banding and other observable physical
` features. Technically speaking, the two varieties that account for the vast
` majority of "flint" artifact materials are chalcedony and chert.

` Other varieties encountered in the artifact world are agate, jasper and
` petrified wood. Interestingly, petrified wood is usually wood that has becn
` replaced by agate. This same process also occurs with coral, hence the term
` "agatized coral".

` Chalcedony Chert and Flint

` Chalcedony is a variety of cryptocrystalline quartz with extremely small
` crystals and a specific gravity (weight under water, a measure of a
` rock/mineral's purity) nearly identical to that of pure quartz. Due to its
` very high quartz content and super fine particle matrix, chalcedony has a
` very waxy luster.

Yipes, what a horrendously mangled misdefinition of specific gravity.
By that definition, water has a specific gravity of 0, and wood has
a negative sg. I guess it's a mistranslation of something from another
language, intended to be read as "weight divided by weight of an equal
volume of water", at least I hope that's the explanation.


--
================================================== ========================
vincent@triumf[munge].ca Pete Vincent
Disclaimer: all I know I learned from reading Usenet.

a_plutonium <[Only registered users see links. ]> writes:

Dust and grit I'd reckon, too.


Probably more to do with the structure of the bark. If it traps a lot
of air in bubbles (porous) or between layers of bark, the air will be
an effective insulator. A tightly rolled newspaper is difficult to
cleanly burn unless you can fan it strongly to burn away the charcoal
and blow away the ash as quickly as it forms, otherwise the powdery ash
smothers the flame. To wit, the Australian paper-bark tree is very fire
resistant, its bark being like a tightly rolled 1000-layer ricepaper
newsprint and contains no flammable resin.

Is a cork tree fireproof?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

In article <dvdbeo$1di$[Only registered users see links. ].ca>, Pete wrote:
Yuck.
Looking elsewhere ...
Now that looks like OCR gone wrong.

I don't recognise the names of the "maintainers" of the page, but looking around,
I think it's something maintained by the *geography* department. Can't expect them to
get rocks right. Or to walk straight while chewing gum.

I'll mention it next time I'm in the department. Or maybe I won't - I might be
asked to do the maintenance.

--
Aidan Karley FGS
Aberdeen, Scotland,
Location: 57°10'11" N, 02°08'43" W (sub-tropical Aberdeen), 0.021233

Aidan Karley wrote:

Bob wrote:
A Berkeley group is developing the use of a plant for Se
decontamination of soil. It is in field testing. (I could probably
find a ref if someone wants it.)

Then there are the Ni accumulators, which have several percent Ni in
their sap, nicely chelated (citrate, I think).

A.P. writes:
Bob, can you say anything theoretical about the periodic chart of
chemical elements as to that of fire, burning and ash. Consider that
the elements to making fire are oxygen, carbon which are far to the
right of the chart in rows 4A, 6A and that potassium of ashes is in row
1A far to the left in the chart. So is there some chart relationship as
to fire and burning and the ash remaining afterwards. Is the act of
fire some sort of acid base reaction.

Archimedes Plutonium
[Only registered users see links. ]
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

Resuscitating an old thread, if anyone is still interested. This week's
Nature has an article that appears likely to be relevant :
[Only registered users see links. ]

In article <_kIQf.196$Km6.54@trnddc01>, Hanson wrote:

Abstract:
Nature 440, 688-691 (30 March 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature04590; Received
5 September 2005; ; Accepted 18 January 2006
A silicon transporter in rice

Jian Feng Ma, Kazunori Tamai, Naoki Yamaji, Namiki Mitani, Saeko
Konishi, Maki Katsuhara, Masaji Ishiguro, Yoshiko Murata and Masahiro
Yano

Silicon is beneficial to plant growth and helps plants to overcome
abiotic and biotic stresses by preventing lodging (falling over) and
increasing resistance to pests and diseases, as well as other stresses.
Silicon is essential for high and sustainable production of rice, but
the molecular mechanism responsible for the uptake of silicon is
unknown. Here we describe the Low silicon rice 1 (Lsi1) gene, which
controls silicon accumulation in rice, a typical silicon-accumulating
plant. This gene belongs to the aquaporin family and is constitutively
expressed in the roots. Lsi1 is localized on the plasma membrane of the
distal side of both exodermis and endodermis cells, where casparian
strips are located. Suppression of Lsi1 expression resulted in reduced
silicon uptake. Furthermore, expression of Lsi1 in Xenopus oocytes
showed transport activity for silicon only. The identification of a
silicon transporter provides both an insight into the silicon uptake
system in plants, and a new strategy for producing crops with high
resistance to multiple stresses by genetic modification of the root's
silicon uptake capacity.

--
Aidan Karley, FGS
Aberdeen, Scotland,
Location: 57°10'11" N, 02°08'43" W (sub-tropical Aberdeen), 0.021233

Aidan Karley wrote:


Why would you? You can't even manage your stuck capslock key. "or
maybe you won't", ... indeed. Somehow I don't think your very useful
around the house, Aidan.