Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous earth

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 8 Aug 2010 at 19:20:31 (UTC)

Original - Diatomaceous earth, also known as diatomite or kieselgur, as viewed under bright field illumination on a light microscope. Diatomaceous earth is a soft, siliceous, sedimentary rock made up of the cell walls/shells of single cell diatoms and readily crumbles to a fine powder. Diatom cell walls are bivalve, i.e. made up of two halves, and are made up of biogenic silica; silica synthesised in the diatom cell by the polymerisation of silicic acid. This sample consists of a mixture of centric (radially symmetric) and pennate (bilaterally symmetric) diatoms. The primary uses of diatomaceous earth are for cleaning (scouring), filtration, heat-resistive insulation and as an inert absorbent substrate. One of the most famous uses was by Alfred Nobel who developed dynamite; a mixture of diatomaceous earth and nitroglycerin. This image of diatomaceous earth particles in water is at a scale of 6.236 pixels/μm, the entire image covers a region of approximately 1.13 by 0.69 mm.

Reason

This is a high quality image of an interesting, and surprisingly widely used, sedimentary rock.

Articles in which this image appears

Dynamite, Silicate, Diatom, Micropaleontology, Diatomaceous earth, Biogenic silica

FP category for this image

Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Geology

Creator

Richard Wheeler (Zephyris)

• Support as nominator --- Zephyris _Talk 19:20, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
• Support I love the detail and size of this image. Excellent micrograph. — raekyT 21:13, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
• Support per my reasons in peer review, I wonder how anyone can oppose this. --I'ḏ♥One 21:23, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
• Support The usual thing for throwing on spills back in chemistry, plus a key ingredient for dynamite. Noodle snacks (talk) 00:04, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
• Support Great detail and good EV. -- bydand•talk 09:04, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
• Support Brilliant. WackyWace ^{converse | contribs} 18:50, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
• Support Interesting. Hive001 contact 18:30, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Promoted File:Diatomaceous Earth BrightField.jpg --Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 21:46, 8 August 2010 (UTC)