Moonmilk
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Moonmilk
Moonmilk (sometimes called mondmilch, also known as montmilch or as cave milk) is a white, creamy substance found inside limestone, dolomite, and possibly other types of caves. It is a precipitate from limestone comprising aggregates of fine crystals of varying composition usually made of carbonates such as calcite, aragonite, hydromagnesite, and/or monohydrocalcite. There are several hypotheses concerning the origin of moonmilk. One of these explains moonmilk to be the result of bacterial action rather than from chemical reactions. According to this particular hypothesis, moonmilk is thought to have been created by the bacterium ''Macromonas bipunctata''. However, no microbiological studies have been carried out so far. Moonmilk was originally explained as created by moon rays. It is possible that moonmilk is formed by water that dissolves and softens the karst of caves consisting of carbonates, and carries dissolved nutrients that can be used by microbes, such as Actinomyc ...
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Moonmilk Image Viewed With Scanning Electron Microscope
Moonmilk (sometimes called mondmilch, also known as montmilch or as cave milk) is a white, creamy substance found inside limestone, dolomite, and possibly other types of caves. It is a precipitate from limestone comprising aggregates of fine crystals of varying composition usually made of carbonates such as calcite, aragonite, hydromagnesite, and/or monohydrocalcite. There are several hypotheses concerning the origin of moonmilk. One of these explains moonmilk to be the result of bacterial action rather than from chemical reactions. According to this particular hypothesis, moonmilk is thought to have been created by the bacterium ''Macromonas bipunctata''. However, no microbiological studies have been carried out so far. Moonmilk was originally explained as created by moon rays. It is possible that moonmilk is formed by water that dissolves and softens the karst of caves consisting of carbonates, and carries dissolved nutrients that can be used by microbes, such as Actinomyc ...
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Macromonas Bipunctata
''Macromonas'' ''bipunctata'' is a Gram-negative, colorless, and heterotrophic sulfur bacterium of the genus '' Macromonas''. It is commonly found in sewage aeration tanks and caves where moonmilk has formed. In the 1920s, researcher Gicklhorn first discovered this organism under the name ''Pseudomonas'' ''bipunctata''. After further study and culturing by Utermöhl and Koppe, in 1923, it was later renamed '' Macromonas'' ''bipunctata''. This organism is thought to be non-pathogenic species. In fact, the moonmilk produced was referenced as a remedy for infections in the Middle Ages. Background History In the Middle Ages, "moonmilk" was used as a medicine. People often used it to cure infections and accelerate the healing process. Moonmilk is more than simply '' Macromonas bipunctata''. It also contains populations of cyanobacteria, fungi, green algae, and actinomycetes, which are the main producers of antibiotics. This could explain why it was effective as a potential ...
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Finger Fluting
In prehistoric art, finger flutings are lines that fingers leave on a soft surface. Considered a form of cave painting, they occur in caves throughout southern Australia, New Guinea, and southwestern Europe, and were presumably made over a considerable time span including some or all of the Upper Paleolithic. Most are not obvious figures or symbols but, rather, appear to many observers as enigmatic lines. They are also called tracés digitaux or finger tracings and (though these terms are also in part interpretative) meanders, macaroni, and serpentines. The term finger fluting was coined by Robert G. Bednarik. Generally they are made in a substance called moonmilk. Sometimes they are made through a thin clay film into moonmilk underneath or perhaps just into clay. As Henri Breuil has published, finger flutings have been recognized since the early days of the 20th century in Europe as Paleolithic. Their recognition as having a similar antiquity outside of Europe lay chiefly in the ...
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Kartchner Caverns State Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with of passages. The park is located south of the town of Benson, Arizona, Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River (Arizona), San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation. The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains. The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance are designed to preserve the cave system. History The caverns were discovered in 1974, when Caving, cavers Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts found a narrow crack in the bottom of a sinkhole, and followed the source of warm, moist air toward what ende ...
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Hydromagnesite
Hydromagnesite is a hydrated magnesium carbonate mineral with the formula Mg5(CO3)4(OH)2·4H2O. It generally occurs associated with the weathering products of magnesium containing minerals such as serpentine or brucite. It occurs as incrustations and vein or fracture fillings in ultramafic rocks and serpentinites, and occurs in hydrothermally altered dolomite and marble. Hydromagnesite commonly appears in caves as speleothems and "moonmilk", deposited from water that has seeped through magnesium rich rocks. It is the most common cave carbonate after calcite and aragonite. The mineral thermally decomposes, over a temperature range of approximately 220 °C to 550 °C, releasing water and carbon dioxide leaving a magnesium oxide residue. Hydromagnesite was first described in 1836 for an occurrence in Hoboken, New Jersey. Stromatolites in an alkaline ( pH greater than 9) freshwater lake ( Salda Gölü) in southern Turkey are made of hydromagnesite precipitated by diatoms a ...
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Monohydrocalcite
Monohydrocalcite is a mineral that is a hydrous form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3·H2O. It was formerly also known by the name hydrocalcite, which is now discredited by the IMA. It is a trigonal mineral which is white when pure. Monohydrocalcite is not a common rock-forming mineral, but is frequently associated with other calcium and magnesium carbonate minerals, such as calcite, aragonite, lansfordite, and nesquehonite. Monohydrocalcite has been observed in air conditioning systems, and in moonmilk deposits in caves, both probably formed from spray of carbonate rich fluids. It is well known in Robe on the Limestone Coast of South Australia as a component of beach sands of Lake Fellmongery and Lake Butler, where it is believed to be formed from algal spume. Other lacustrine deposits include Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, Lake Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Solar Lake, Sinai. It has been reported as a significant component of the decomposition of ikaite in the towers ...
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Cellular Respiration
Cellular respiration is the process by which biological fuels are oxidised in the presence of an inorganic electron acceptor such as oxygen to produce large amounts of energy, to drive the bulk production of ATP. Cellular respiration may be described as a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert chemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products. The reactions involved in respiration are catabolic reactions, which break large molecules into smaller ones, releasing energy. Respiration is one of the key ways a cell releases chemical energy to fuel cellular activity. The overall reaction occurs in a series of biochemical steps, some of which are redox reactions. Although cellular respiration is technically a combustion reaction, it is an unusual one because of the slow, controlled release of energy from the series of reactions. Nutrients that are commonly used by animal and plan ...
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Speleology
Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). The term ''speleology'' is also sometimes applied to the recreational activity of exploring caves, but this is more properly known as ''caving'', ''potholing'' (British English), or ''spelunking''. Speleology and caving are often connected, as the physical skills required for ''in situ'' study are the same. Speleology is a cross-disciplinary field that combines the knowledge of chemistry, biology, geology, physics, meteorology, and cartography to develop portraits of caves as complex, evolving systems. History Before modern speleology developed, John Beaumont wrote detailed descriptions of some Mendip caves in the 1680s. The term speleology was coined by Émile Rivière in 1890. Prior to the mid-nineteenth century the scientific valu ...
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Cardialgia
Heartburn, also known as pyrosis, cardialgia or acid indigestion, is a burning sensation in the central chest or upper central abdomen. Heartburn is usually due to regurgitation of gastric acid (gastric reflux) into the esophagus. It is the major symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Other common descriptors for heartburn (besides burning) are belching, nausea, squeezing, stabbing, or a sensation of pressure on the chest. The pain often rises in the chest (directly behind the breastbone) and may radiate to the neck, throat, or angle of the arm. Because the chest houses other important organs besides the esophagus (including the heart and lungs), not all symptoms related to heartburn are esophageal in nature. The cause will vary depending on one's family and medical history, genetics, if a person is pregnant or lactating, and age. As a result, the diagnosis will vary depending on the suspected organ and the inciting disease process. Work-up will vary depending on t ...
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Acidosis
Acidosis is a process causing increased acidity in the blood and other body tissues (i.e., an increase in hydrogen ion concentration). If not further qualified, it usually refers to acidity of the blood plasma. The term ''acidemia'' describes the state of low blood pH, while ''acidosis'' is used to describe the processes leading to these states. Nevertheless, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The distinction may be relevant where a patient has factors causing both acidosis and alkalosis, wherein the relative severity of both determines whether the result is a high, low, or normal pH. Acidemia is said to occur when arterial pH falls below 7.35 (except in the fetus – see below), while its counterpart ( alkalemia) occurs at a pH over 7.45. Arterial blood gas analysis and other tests are required to separate the main causes. The rate of cellular metabolic activity affects and, at the same time, is affected by the pH of the body fluids. In mammals, the normal pH of ar ...
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Brushite
Brushite is a phosphate mineral with the chemical formula . Crystals of the pure compound belong to the monoclinic space group C2/c and are colorless.Brishite
Webmineral
It is the phosphate analogue of the .


Discovery and occurrence

Brushite was first described in 1865 for an occurrence on Aves Island, ,