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SILICA
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A white or colorless vitreous insoluble solid (SiO2); various forms occur widely in the earth's crust as quartz or cristobalite or tridymite or lechatelierite
Synonyms:
silica; silicon dioxide; silicon oxide
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("silica" is a kind of...):
oxide (any compound of oxygen with another element or a radical)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "silica"):
chert (variety of silica containing microcrystalline quartz)
flint (a hard kind of stone; a form of silica more opaque than chalcedony)
silex (a pure form of finely ground silica)
Holonyms ("silica" is a substance of...):
cristobalite (a white mineral consisting of silica; found in volcanic rocks)
quartz (a hard glossy mineral consisting of silicon dioxide in crystal form; present in most rocks (especially sandstone and granite); yellow sand is quartz with iron oxide impurities)
crystal; lechatelierite; quartz; quartz glass; vitreous silica (colorless glass made of almost pure silica)
tridymite (a mineral form of silica)
Derivation:
siliceous; silicious (relating to or containing or resembling silica)
Context examples:
Gopalan tells that the compound, made by using epoxy as a base and incorporating mango leaf extracts in a substrate of amorphous silica, achieved 99 per cent inhibition of corrosion in commercial steel when immersed in a saline medium to mimic seawater.
(Mango leaf extract can stop ships from rusting, SciDev.Net)
Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer instrument repeatedly detected miniscule rock particles rich in silicon and the team concluded these particles must be grains of silica, which is found in sand and the mineral quartz on Earth.
(Spacecraft Data Suggest Saturn Moon's Ocean May Harbor Hydrothermal Activity, NASA)
But silica is not a major component of AGB star dust, and observations had not made it clear if these stars could be the primary producer of silica dust observed throughout the universe.
(Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass, NASA)
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has found a target unlike anything it has studied before — bedrock with surprisingly high levels of silica.
(Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock, NASA)
In total, silica makes up about 60 percent of Earth's crust.
(Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass, NASA)
High levels of silica in the rock could indicate ideal conditions for preserving ancient organic material, if present, so the science team wants to take a closer look.
(Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock, NASA)
Most of the silicon used in electronic devices comes from silica.
(Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass, NASA)
The Curiosity team decided to back up the rover 46 meters (151 feet) from the geological contact zone to investigate the high-silica target dubbed "Elk".
(Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock, NASA)
Its widespread presence on Earth is no surprise, as silica dust has been found throughout the universe and in meteorites that predate our solar system.
(Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass, NASA)
Before Curiosity began further investigating the high-silica area, it was busy scrutinizing the geological contact zone near Marias Pass, where a pale mudstone meets darker sandstone.
(Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock, NASA)
