Dendrite (crystal)

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Dendrite (crystal)

A crystal dendrite is a crystal that develops with a typical multi-branching tree-like form. Dendritic crystal growth is very common and illustrated by snowflake formation and frost

Frost

Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from Saturation air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air....
patterns on a window. Dendritic crystallization forms a natural fractal

Fractal

A fractal is generally "a rough or fragmented Shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity....
pattern.

The term "dendrite" comes from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
word dendron, which means "tree".

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Paleontology

File:Geological time spiral - sharper.pngPaleontology from Greek: pa?a??? "old, ancient", ??, ??t- "being, creature", and ????? "speech, thought" is the study of prehistory life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments ....
, dendritic mineral crystal forms are often mistaken for fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
s.

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Encyclopedia

A crystal dendrite is a crystal that develops with a typical multi-branching tree-like form. Dendritic crystal growth is very common and illustrated by snowflake formation and frost

Frost

Fractal

Greek language

Mineralogy and paleontology

In paleontology

Paleontology

Fossil

Pseudofossil

Pseudofossils are inorganic objects, markings, or impressions that might be mistaken for fossils. Pseudofossils may be misleading, as some types of mineral deposits can mimic lifeforms by forming what appear to be highly detailed or organized structures....
s form as naturally occurring fissures in the rock are filled by percolating mineral solutions. They form when water rich in manganese

Manganese

Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a Oxidation state in nature , and in many minerals....
and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
flows along fractures and bedding planes between layers of limestone

Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
and other rock types, depositing dendritic crystals as the solution flows through. A variety of manganese oxides and hydroxides are involved, including:

birnessite
Birnessite

Birnessite is an mineral oxide of manganese along with calcium, potassium and sodium. It has a dark brown to black color with a submetallic Lustre ....
(Na₄Mn₁₄O₂₇·9H₂O)
coronadite (PbMn₈O₁₆)
cryptomelane (KMn₈O₁₆)
hollandite (BaMn₈O₁₆)
romanechite
Romanèchite

Roman?chite is the primary constituent of psilomelane, which is a mixture of minerals. Most psilomelane is not pure romanechite, so it is incorrect to consider them synonyms....
((Ba,H₂O)Mn₅O₁₀)
todorokite
Todorokite

Todorokite is a rare complex hydrous manganese oxide mineral with formula: 2Mn3oxygen12·3water. It is a brown to black monoclinic mineral which occurs in massive or tuberose forms....
((Ba,Mn,Mg,Ca,K,Na)₂Mn₃O₁₂·3H₂O) and others.

A three-dimensional form of dendrite develops in fissures in quartz

Quartz

Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust . It is made up of a Crystal structure of silica tetrahedra. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale and a density of 2.65 g/cm?....
, forming moss agate

Agate

Agate is a microcrystalline variety of quartz , chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks but can be common in certain metamorphic rocks....
.

Crystallography and metallurgy

In chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
, a dendrite is a crystal

Crystal

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions....
that branches into two parts during growth.

NASA microgravity experiment

The Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) is a materials science

Materials science

Materials science or materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering....
solidification experiment that researchers use on Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
missions to investigate dendritic growth. Dendritic solidification is one of the most common forms of solidifying metals and alloys. When materials crystallize or solidify under certain conditions, they freeze unstably, resulting in dendritic forms. Scientists are particularly interested in dendrite size, shape, and how the branches of the dendrites interact with each other. These characteristics largely determine the properties of the material.

Dendrite (crystal)

Mineralogy and paleontology

Crystallography and metallurgy

NASA microgravity experiment

See also