The Canadian Shield is a large craton in eastern and central Canada and adjacent portions of the United States, composed of bare rock dating to the Precambrian Era (between 4.5 billion and 540 million years ago). It is also called the Precambrian Shield, Laurentian Shield, or Laurentian Plateau. Canadian Shield - Regional extent. Other than the Greenland section, the Shield is approximately circular, with Hudson Bay in the middle. It covers much of Greenland; Labrador; most of Q ...

Including:

• Canadian Shield - Regional extent
• Canadian Shield - Geology
• Canadian Shield - Mining and economics

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Ames Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Ames, Iowa. Compared to most other DOE laboratories, it is small, employing about 500 people. It is located on the campus of Iowa State University. Ames Laboratory - History. The lab was started as part of the Manhattan Project. Its purpose was to produce high purity uranium from uranium ores. Frank Spedding lead the effort to develop the thermite process for this purpose. Most of the uranium used in the first sel ...

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• Ames Laboratory - History

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Bismuth is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Bi and atomic number 83. This heavy, brittle, white crystalline trivalent poor metal has a pink tinge and chemically resembles arsenic and antimony. Of all the metals, it is the most naturally diamagnetic, and only mercury has less thermal conductivity. Lead-free bismuth compounds are used in cosmetics and in medical procedures. Bismuth - Notable characteristics. It is a brittle metal with a pinkish hue with an iridescent tarnish ...

Including:

• Bismuth - Notable characteristics
• Bismuth - Applications
• Bismuth - Crystals
• Bismuth - History
• Bismuth - Occurrence

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Amapá is one of the states of Brazil, located in the extreme north, bordering French Guiana in the north. In the east is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south and west is the Brazilian state Pará. Amapá - Geography. Amapá is located at the mouth of the Amazon River, and is mostly covered with rainforest. The interior features a number of low hills that constitute the extreme eastern end of the Guiana Highlands. The state is currently a great producer and exporter of iron, bauxite, and other ores.< ...

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• Amapá - Geography
• Amapá - History
• Amapá - Flag

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About 20-30 species, see text. Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants (Alnus) belonging to the birch family (Family Betulaceae). The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate zone, and in the New World also along the Andes southwards to Chile. The leaves are deciduous (evergreen or nearly so in a few species), alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same pla ...

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• Alder - Classification
• Alder - Uses

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Zinc (from German zink) is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc - Notable characteristics. Zinc is a moderately reactive metal that will combine with oxygen and other non-metals, and will react with dilute acids to release hydrogen. The one common oxidation state of zinc is +2. Zinc - Applications. Zinc is the fourth most common metal in use, trailing only iron, aluminium, and copper in annual production. ...

Including:

• Zinc - Notable characteristics
• Zinc - Applications
• Zinc - Popular misconceptions
• Zinc - History
• Zinc - Biological role
• Zinc - Food Sources
• Zinc - Zinc Deficiency
• Zinc - Zinc Toxicity
• Zinc - Psoriasis
• Zinc - Immune System
• Zinc - Abundance
• Zinc - Zinc production
• Zinc - Compounds
• Zinc - Isotopes
• Zinc - Precautions

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Breccia, derived from the Latin word for "broken," is typically a sedimentary rock composed of angular fragments in a matrix that may be of a similar or a different material. A conglomerate by contrast is a sedimentary rock composed of rounded fragments or clasts of pre-existing rocks. Both breccias and conglomerates are composed of fragments averaging greater than 2 mm in size. The angular shape of the fragments indicate that the material has not been transported far from its source. Breccias indicate accumulation in a juvenile stream channel or accumulations due to gravity erosion. Talus slopes may become buri ...

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• Breccia - Ornamental uses of breccia

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Calcination is the process of heating a substance to a high temperature, but below its melting or fusing point, to bring about thermal decomposition or a phase transition in its physical or chemical constitution. The process, which usually takes place in long cylindrical kilns, often has the effect of making a substance friable. The objects of calcination are usually: to drive off water, present as absorbed moisture, as "water of crystallization", or as "water of constitution" (as in the conversion of ferric hydrox ...

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Cobalt is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Co and atomic number 27. Cobalt - Notable characteristics. Cobalt is a hard ferromagnetic silver-white element. The Curie temperature is of 1388 K with 1.6~1.7 Bohr magnetons per atom. It is frequently associated with nickel, and both are characteristic ingredients of meteoric iron. Mammals require small amounts of cobalt salts. Cobalt-60, an artificially produced radioactive isotope of cobalt, is an important radioactive tracer a ...

Including:

• Cobalt - Notable characteristics
• Cobalt - Applications
• Cobalt - Use in medicine
• Cobalt - History
• Cobalt - Biological role
• Cobalt - Occurrence
• Cobalt - Compounds
• Cobalt - Isotopes
• Cobalt - Precautions

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Exploration is the act of searching or traveling for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown regions, including space (space exploration), or oil, gas, coal, ores, water (also known as prospecting), or information. Exploration has existed as long as human beings, but its peak is seen as being during the Age of Exploration when European navigators travelled around the world. In scientific research, exploration is one of three purposes of research (the other two being description and explanation). Exploration is the attempt to develop a ...

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• Exploration - Main Explorers Since 1 AD
• Exploration - Exploration by area

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Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Due to its color and high copper content, chalcopyrite has often been referred to as "yellow copper". Chalcopyrite is often confused with pyrite, although the latter has a cubic and not a tetragonal crystal system. Further, chalcopyrite is more often massive and less brit ...

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In physics, magnetism is one of the phenomena by which materials exert an attractive or repulsive force on other materials. Magnetism - Magnetic materials. Some well known materials that exhibit easily detectable magnetic properties are iron, some steels, and the mineral lodestone; however, all materials are influenced to one degree or another by the presence of a magnetic field, although in most cases the influence is too small to detect without special equipment.

Collier may refer to: a bulk cargo ship that carried coal. They were used both to transport coal between ports and to refuel coal burning ships. an occupational title for people who carried and sold coal. In the Middle Ages colliery was a common profession. Colliery is still an important profession today in the north England counties of Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. In colonial United States, a collier was a person who manufactured charcoal, used for gunpowder and smelting metal ores. It was a diffic ...

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• Collier - People
• Collier - Places

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Uranium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. Heavy, silvery-white, toxic, metallic, naturally radioactive, pyrophoric, and teratogenic uranium belongs to the actinide series and its isotope 235U is used as the fuel for nuclear reactors and the explosive material for nuclear weapons. Depleted uranium is used in incindiary projectile weapons. Uranium is commonly found in very small amounts in rocks, soil, water, plants, and animals (including humans). Uranium - ...

Including:

• Uranium - Notable characteristics
• Uranium - Applications
• Uranium - History
• Uranium - Military applications
• Uranium - Uranium exploration and mining
• Uranium - Rise stagnation and possible renaissance of uranium mining
• Uranium - Risks of uranium mining
• Uranium - Codenames tuballoy and oralloy
• Uranium - Compounds
• Uranium - Occurrence
• Uranium - Production and distribution
• Uranium - Isotopes
• Uranium - Precautions

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Locust is the name given to the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. The origins and apparent extinction of certain species of locust—some of which reach 6 inches (15 cm) in length—are unclear. There are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory. They form bands as nymphs and swarms as adults both of which travel great distances during which they can strip fields rapidly and in so doing greatly damage crop yields. An exacerbating factor in the damage to crops caused by locusts is their abil ...

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• Locust - Locusts in history and literature
• Locust - Latest findings

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Hydrogen (Latin: hydrogenium, from Greek: hydro: water, genes: forming) is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol H and atomic number 1. At standard temperature and pressure it is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, univalent, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas. Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe. It is present in water, all organic compounds (rare exceptions exist, like buckminsterfullerene) and in all living organisms. Hydrogen is able to react c ...

Including:

• Hydrogen - Basic features
• Hydrogen - Applications
• Hydrogen - History
• Hydrogen - Electron energy levels
• Hydrogen - Occurrence
• Hydrogen - Compounds
• Hydrogen - Forms
• Hydrogen - Isotopes

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Malachite is a carbonate mineral, copper(II) carbonate hydroxide Cu2CO3(OH)2. Malachite has a hardness between 3.5 and 4. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Malachite often results from weathering of copper ores and is often found together with azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2), goethite, and calcite. Except for the iridescent green colour, the properties of malachite are very simil ...

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Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe (L.: Ferrum) and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 metal. Iron is notable for being the final element produced by stellar nucleosynthesis, and thus the heaviest element which does not require a supernova or similarly cataclysmic event for its formation. It is therefore the most abundant heavy metal in the universe. Iron - Notable characteristics. Iron is the most abundant metal on Earth, and is believed to be the tenth most abundant element ...

Including:

• Iron - Notable characteristics
• Iron - Applications
• Iron - History
• Iron - Occurrence
• Iron - Extraction from ore
• Iron - Compounds
• Iron - Biological role
• Iron - Isotopes
• Iron - Precautions

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Building cities in space will require materials, energy, transportation, communications, life support, and radiation protection. Space colonization - Materials. Colonies on the Moon and Mars can use local materials, although the Moon is deficient in carbon and nitrogen. For orbital colonies, launching materials from Earth is very expensive, so bulk materials should come from the Moon or Near-Earth Objects (NEOs - asteroids and comets with orbits near Earth) where gravitational forces are much less, there i ...

See also:

Space colonization, Space colonization - Method, Space colonization - Materials, Space colonization - Energy, Space colonization - Transportation, Space colonization - Communication, Space colonization - Life support, Space colonization - Radiation protection, Space colonization - Self-replication, Space colonization - Population size, Space colonization - Location, Space colonization - Orbit, Space colonization - Asteroid, Space colonization - Terrestrial analogues, Space colonization - Mercury, Space colonization - Venus, Space colonization - Europa, Space colonization - Gas Giants, Space colonization - Space habitats, Space colonization - Spaceship, Space colonization - Justification, Space colonization - Advocacy, Space colonization - Objections

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The major use for tantalum, as tantalum metal powder, is in the production of electronic components, mainly tantalum capacitors. Tantalum electrolytic capacitors exploit the natural tendency of tantalum to form a protective oxide surface layer, using tantalum foil as one plate of the capacitor, the oxide as the dielectric, and an electrolytic solution as the other plate. Because the dielectric layer can be very thin (thinner than the similar layer in, for instance, an aluminium electrolytic capacitor), a high capacitance can be achieved in a ...

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Tantalum, Tantalum - Notable characteristics, Tantalum - Applications, Tantalum - History, Tantalum - Occurrence, Tantalum - Compounds, Tantalum - Isotopes, Tantalum - Precautions

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