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75-582: Malolo was one of the locations surveyed by members the United States Exploring Expedition under Charles Wilkes in 1840. During their visit, two members of the party, including Midshipman Wilkes Henry, Wilkes' nephew, were killed by natives as they attempted to negotiate for food. In retaliation, 80 plus crewmen from the Expedition's ships attacked and destroyed the villages on Malolo, killing 87, and laid waste to all of

150-444: A ( polarizer ) below the sample and an analyzer above it, polarized perpendicular to each other. Light passes successively through the polarizer, the sample and the analyzer. If there is no sample, the analyzer blocks all the light from the polarizer. However, an anisotropic sample will generally change the polarization so some of the light can pass through. Thin sections and powders can be used as samples. When an isotropic crystal

225-444: A mineralogist , a taxidermist , and a philologist . They were carried aboard the sloops-of-war USS  Vincennes (780 tons), and USS  Peacock (650 tons), the brig USS  Porpoise (230 tons), the full-rigged ship Relief , which served as a store-ship , and two schooners , Sea Gull (110 tons) and USS  Flying Fish (96 tons), which served as tenders . On August 18, 1838,

300-548: A polarizing microscope . James D. Dana published his first edition of A System of Mineralogy in 1837, and in a later edition introduced a chemical classification that is still the standard. X-ray diffraction was demonstrated by Max von Laue in 1912, and developed into a tool for analyzing the crystal structure of minerals by the father/son team of William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg . More recently, driven by advances in experimental technique (such as neutron diffraction ) and available computational power,

375-468: A sclerometer ; compared to the absolute scale, the Mohs scale is nonlinear. Tenacity refers to the way a mineral behaves, when it is broken, crushed, bent or torn. A mineral can be brittle , malleable , sectile , ductile , flexible or elastic . An important influence on tenacity is the type of chemical bond ( e.g., ionic or metallic ). Of the other measures of mechanical cohesion, cleavage

450-488: A captain's uniform while being commissioned only as a Lieutenant, rankled heavily with other members of the expedition of similar real rank. His apparent mistreatment of many of his subordinates, and indulgence in punishments such as " flogging round the fleet " resulted in a major controversy on his return to America. Wilkes was court-martialled on his return, but was acquitted on all charges except that of illegally punishing men in his squadron. The Wilkes Expedition played

525-654: A force of around 700 Gilbertese warriors opposed the American assault, but were defeated after a long battle. No Americans were hurt, but twelve natives were killed and others were wounded, and two villages were also destroyed. A similar episode occurred two months before in February when the Peacock and the Flying Fish briefly bombarded the island of Upolu , Samoa following the death of an American merchant sailor on

600-411: A major role in the development of 19th-century science, particularly in the growth of the American scientific establishment. Many of the species and other items found by the expedition helped form the basis of collections at the new Smithsonian Institution . With the help of the expedition's scientists, derisively called " clam digger s" and " bug catchers " by navy crew members, 280 islands, mostly in

675-746: A misunderstanding of each other's intentions, the Porpoise and Astrolabe were unable to communicate. In February 1840, some of the expedition were present at the initial signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand. Some of the squadron then proceeded back to Sydney for repairs, while the rest visited the Bay of Islands , before arriving in Tonga in April. At Nuku'alofa they met King Josiah (Aleamotu'a), and

750-449: A much smaller sample) has essentially the same relationship. This implies that, given the chemical composition of the planet, one could predict the more common minerals. However, the distribution has a long tail , with 34% of the minerals having been found at only one or two locations. The model predicts that thousands more mineral species may await discovery or have formed and then been lost to erosion, burial or other processes. This implies

825-583: A part of the Smithsonian Institution. There were also 254 live plants, which mostly came from the home stretch of the journey, that were placed in a newly constructed greenhouse in 1850, which later became the United States Botanic Garden . Alfred Thomas Agate , an engraver and illustrator, created an enduring record of traditional cultures such as the illustrations made of the dress and tattoo patterns of natives in

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900-459: A polarizing microscope to observe. When light passes from air or a vacuum into a transparent crystal, some of it is reflected at the surface and some refracted . The latter is a bending of the light path that occurs because the speed of light changes as it goes into the crystal; Snell's law relates the bending angle to the Refractive index , the ratio of speed in a vacuum to speed in

975-836: A role of chance in the formation of rare minerals occur. In another use of big data sets, network theory was applied to a dataset of carbon minerals, revealing new patterns in their diversity and distribution. The analysis can show which minerals tend to coexist and what conditions (geological, physical, chemical and biological) are associated with them. This information can be used to predict where to look for new deposits and even new mineral species. Minerals are essential to various needs within human society, such as minerals used as ores for essential components of metal products used in various commodities and machinery , essential components to building materials such as limestone , marble , granite , gravel , glass , plaster , cement , etc. Minerals are also used in fertilizers to enrich

1050-486: A small force of marines and sailors, under William M. Walker , to search the island. Initially, the natives were peaceful and the Americans were able to explore the island, without results. It was when the party was returning to their ship that Hudson noticed a member of his crew was missing. After making another search, the man was not found and the natives began arming themselves. Lieutenant Walker returned his force to

1125-511: A visit to Wake Island , and returned by way of the Philippines , Borneo , Singapore , Polynesia , and the Cape of Good Hope , reaching New York on June 10, 1842. The expedition was plagued by poor relationships between Wilkes and his subordinate officers throughout. Wilkes' self-proclaimed status as captain and commodore, accompanied by the flying of the requisite pennant and the wearing of

1200-530: Is determined by comparison with other minerals. In the Mohs scale , a standard set of minerals are numbered in order of increasing hardness from 1 (talc) to 10 (diamond). A harder mineral will scratch a softer, so an unknown mineral can be placed in this scale, by which minerals; it scratches and which scratch it. A few minerals such as calcite and kyanite have a hardness that depends significantly on direction. Hardness can also be measured on an absolute scale using

1275-454: Is similar to wet chemistry in that the sample must still be dissolved, but it is much faster and cheaper. The solution is vaporized and its absorption spectrum is measured in the visible and ultraviolet range. Other techniques are X-ray fluorescence , electron microprobe analysis atom probe tomography and optical emission spectrography . In addition to macroscopic properties such as colour or lustre, minerals have properties that require

1350-399: Is the arrangement of atoms in a crystal. It is represented by a lattice of points which repeats a basic pattern, called a unit cell , in three dimensions. The lattice can be characterized by its symmetries and by the dimensions of the unit cell. These dimensions are represented by three Miller indices . The lattice remains unchanged by certain symmetry operations about any given point in

1425-594: Is the identification and classification of minerals by their properties. Historically, mineralogy was heavily concerned with taxonomy of the rock-forming minerals. In 1959, the International Mineralogical Association formed the Commission of New Minerals and Mineral Names to rationalize the nomenclature and regulate the introduction of new names. In July 2006, it was merged with the Commission on Classification of Minerals to form

1500-432: Is the tendency to break along certain crystallographic planes. It is described by the quality ( e.g. , perfect or fair) and the orientation of the plane in crystallographic nomenclature. Parting is the tendency to break along planes of weakness due to pressure, twinning or exsolution . Where these two kinds of break do not occur, fracture is a less orderly form that may be conchoidal (having smooth curves resembling

1575-481: Is viewed, it appears dark because it does not change the polarization of the light. However, when it is immersed in a calibrated liquid with a lower index of refraction and the microscope is thrown out of focus, a bright line called a Becke line appears around the perimeter of the crystal. By observing the presence or absence of such lines in liquids with different indices, the index of the crystal can be estimated, usually to within ± 0.003 . Systematic mineralogy

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1650-545: The Columbia River on June 21. In April 1841, USS Peacock , under Lieutenant William L. Hudson , and USS Flying Fish , surveyed Drummond's Island , which was named for an American of the expedition. Lieutenant Hudson heard from a member of his crew that a ship had wrecked off the island and her crew massacred by the Gilbertese . A woman and her child were said to be the only survivors, so Hudson decided to land

1725-780: The Ellice Islands in present-day Tuvalu . A collection of artifacts from the expedition also went to the National Institute for the Promotion of Science , a precursor of the Smithsonian Institution . These joined artifacts from American history as the first artifacts in the Smithsonian collection. For a short time Wilkes was attached to the Office of Coast Survey , but from 1844 to 1861 he

1800-527: The Fraser River . Wilkes visited Fort Clatsop , John McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver , and William Cannon on the Willamette River , while he sent Lt. Johnson on an expedition to Fort Okanogan , Fort Colvile and Fort Nez Perces , where they met Marcus Whitman . Like his predecessor, British explorer George Vancouver , Wilkes spent a good deal of time near Bainbridge Island . He noted

1875-588: The Hudson's Bay Company , and the American Methodist Mission at Point Adams. They also traded with the local Clatsop and Chinookan Indians over the next three weeks, while surveying the channel, before journeying to Fort George and a reunion with the rest of the squadron. This prompted Wilkes to send the Vincennes to San Francisco Bay, while he continued to survey Grays Harbor . From

1950-583: The Peacock sighted Eld Peak and Reynolds Peak along the George V Coast . On the January 19, Reynolds spotted Cape Hudson . On January 25, the Vincennes sighted the mountains behind the Cook Ice Shelf , similar peaks at Piner Bay on January 30, and had covered 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of coastline by February 12, from 140° 30' E. to 112° 16' 12"E., when Wilkes acknowledged they had "discovered

2025-430: The Peacock went aground while attempting to enter the Columbia River and was soon lost, though with no loss of life. The crew was able to lower six boats and get everyone into Baker's Bay, along with their journals, surveys, the chronometers, and some of Agate's sketches. A one-eyed Indian named George then guided the Flying Fish into the same bay. There, the crew set up "Peacockville", assisted by James Birnie of

2100-641: The Tokelau Islands, and Fakaofo . The Peacock followed this with surveys of the Tuvalu islands of Nukufetau , Vaitupu , and Nanumanga in March. In April, the Peacock surveyed the Gilbert Islands of Tabiteuea , Nonouti , Aranuka , Maiana , Abemama , Kuria , Tarawa , Marakei , Butaritari , and Makin , before returning to Oahu on June 13. The Peacock and Flying Fish then left for

2175-681: The Vincennes in Sausalito on October 23, having traveled along the Siskiyou Trail . Wilkes arrived with the Porpoise and Oregon , while the Flying Fish was to rendezvous with the squadron in Honolulu. The squadron surveyed San Francisco and its tributaries, and later produced a map of "Upper California". The expedition then headed back out on October 31, arriving Honolulu on November 17, and departing on November 28. They included

2250-457: The crowd-sourced site Mindat.org , which has over 690,000 mineral-locality pairs, with the official IMA list of approved minerals and age data from geological publications. This database makes it possible to apply statistics to answer new questions, an approach that has been called mineral ecology . One such question is how much of mineral evolution is deterministic and how much the result of chance . Some factors are deterministic, such as

2325-413: The microscope in the 17th century. Nicholas Steno first observed the law of constancy of interfacial angles (also known as the first law of crystallography) in quartz crystals in 1669. This was later generalized and established experimentally by Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Islee in 1783. René Just Haüy , the "father of modern crystallography", showed that crystals are periodic and established that

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2400-552: The Antarctic Continent." Named Wilkes Land , it includes Claire Land , Banzare Land , Sabrina Land , Budd Land , and Knox Land . They charted 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) of Antarctic coastline to a westward goal of 105° E., the edge of Queen Mary Land , before departing to the north again on February 21. The Porpoise came across the French expedition of Jules Dumont d'Urville on January 30. However, due to

2475-556: The Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature, and Classification. There are over 6,000 named and unnamed minerals, and about 100 are discovered each year. The Manual of Mineralogy places minerals in the following classes: native elements , sulfides , sulfosalts , oxides and hydroxides , halides , carbonates, nitrates and borates , sulfates, chromates, molybdates and tungstates , phosphates, arsenates and vanadates , and silicates . The environments of mineral formation and growth are highly varied, ranging from slow crystallization at

2550-508: The Elder , which not only described many different minerals but also explained many of their properties, and Kitab al Jawahir (Book of Precious Stones) by Persian scientist Al-Biruni . The German Renaissance specialist Georgius Agricola wrote works such as De re metallica ( On Metals , 1556) and De Natura Fossilium ( On the Nature of Rocks , 1546) which began the scientific approach to

2625-686: The George (Taufa'ahau), chief of Ha'apai , before proceeding onwards to Fiji on May 4. The Porpoise surveyed the Low Archipelago, while the Vincennes and Peacock proceeded onwards to Ovalau , where they signed a commercial treaty with Tanoa Visawaqa in Levuka . Edward Belcher 's HMS  Starling visited Ovalau at the same time. Hudson was able to capture Vendovi, after holding his brothers Cocanauto, Qaraniqio, and Tui Dreketi ( Roko Tui Dreketi or King of Rewa Province ) hostage. Vendovi

2700-775: The Navy to ready a ship, the Peacock . The House voted an appropriation in December but the bill stalled in the US Senate in February 1829. Then, under President Andrew Jackson , Congress passed legislation in 1836 approving the exploration mission. Again, the effort stalled under Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson until President Martin Van Buren assumed office and pushed the effort forward. Originally,

2775-531: The Pacific, were explored, and over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of Oregon were mapped. Of no less importance, over 60,000 plant and bird specimens were collected. A staggering amount of data and specimens were collected during the expedition, including the seeds of 648 species, which were later traded, planted, and sent throughout the country. Dried specimens were sent to the National Herbarium , now

2850-463: The Winds . The Smithsonian Institution digitized the five volume narrative and the accompanying scientific volumes. The mismanagement that plagued the expedition prior to its departure continued after its completion. By June 1848, many of the specimens had been lost or damaged and many remained unidentified. In 1848 Asa Gray was hired to work on the botanical specimens, and published the first volume of

2925-659: The area about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Thurston Island , and what is now called Cape Flying Fish , and the Walker Mountains . The squadron joined the Peacock in Valparaiso on May 10, but the Sea Gull was reported missing. On June 6, the squadron arrived at San Lorenzo , off Callao for repair and provisioning, while Wilkes dispatched the Relief homewards on June 21. Leaving South America on July 12,

3000-497: The area of modern-day Portland , Wilkes sent an overland party of 39 southwards, led by Emmons, but guided by Joseph Meek . The group included Agate, Eld, Colvocoresses, Brackenridge, Rich, Peale, Stearns, and Dana, and proceeded along an inland route to Fort Umpqua , Mount Shasta , the Sacramento River , John Sutter 's New Helvetia , and then onwards to San Francisco Bay . They departed September 7, and arrived aboard

3075-515: The bird-like shape of the harbor at Winslow and named it Eagle Harbor . Continuing his fascination with bird names, he named Bill Point and Wing Point. Port Madison, Washington and Points Monroe and Jefferson were named in honor of former United States presidents. Port Ludlow was assigned to honor Lieutenant Augustus Ludlow , who lost his life during the War of 1812 . The Peacock and Flying Fish arrived off Cape Disappointment on July 17. However,

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3150-450: The chemical nature of a mineral and conditions for its stability ; but mineralogy can also be affected by the processes that determine a planet's composition. In a 2015 paper, Robert Hazen and others analyzed the number of minerals involving each element as a function of its abundance. They found that Earth, with over 4800 known minerals and 72 elements, has a power law relationship. The Moon, with only 63 minerals and 24 elements (based on

3225-721: The connection between atomic-scale phenomena and macroscopic properties, the mineral sciences (as they are now commonly known) display perhaps more of an overlap with materials science than any other discipline. An initial step in identifying a mineral is to examine its physical properties, many of which can be measured on a hand sample. These can be classified into density (often given as specific gravity ); measures of mechanical cohesion ( hardness , tenacity , cleavage , fracture , parting ); macroscopic visual properties ( luster , color, streak , luminescence , diaphaneity ); magnetic and electric properties; radioactivity and solubility in hydrogen chloride ( H Cl ). Hardness

3300-591: The crops. Malolo Island is home to five resorts: Tropica Island Resort, Malolo Island Resort, Likuliku Island Resort, 6 Senses Resort and Spa, and Funky Fish Resort. Malolo Island is accessible by boat South Sea Cruises / helicopters for the resorts that have Helipads or through the nearby Malolo Lailai Airport . This article about a geographical location in Fiji is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . United States Exploring Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842

3375-566: The crystal structures of minerals. X-rays have wavelengths that are the same order of magnitude as the distances between atoms. Diffraction , the constructive and destructive interference between waves scattered at different atoms, leads to distinctive patterns of high and low intensity that depend on the geometry of the crystal. In a sample that is ground to a powder, the X-rays sample a random distribution of all crystal orientations. Powder diffraction can distinguish between minerals that may appear

3450-416: The crystal. Crystals whose point symmetry group falls in the cubic system are isotropic : the index does not depend on direction. All other crystals are anisotropic : light passing through them is broken up into two plane polarized rays that travel at different speeds and refract at different angles. A polarizing microscope is similar to an ordinary microscope, but it has two plane-polarized filters,

3525-510: The event, armed conflict between Pacific islanders and the expedition was common and dozens of natives were killed in action, as well as a few Americans. Through the lobbying efforts of Jeremiah N. Reynolds , the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution on May 21, 1828, requesting President John Quincy Adams to send a ship to explore the Pacific. Adams was keen on the resolution and ordered his Secretary of

3600-590: The expedition reached Reao of the Tuamotu Group on August 13, and Tahiti on September 11. They departed Tahiti on October 10. The expedition then visited Samoa and New South Wales , Australia. In December 1839, the expedition sailed from Sydney into the Antarctic Ocean and reported the discovery of the Antarctic continent on January 16, 1840, when Henry Eld and William Reynolds aboard

3675-623: The expedition was under the command Commodore Jones , but he resigned in November 1837, frustrated with all of the procrastination. Secretary of War Joel Roberts Poinsett , in April 1838, then assigned command to Wilkes, after more senior officers refused the command. Wilkes had a reputation for hydrography , geodesy , and magnetism . Additionally, Wilkes had received mathematics training from Nathaniel Bowditch , triangulation methods from Ferdinand Hassler , and geomagnetism from James Renwick . Personnel included naturalists , botanists ,

3750-480: The field has made great advances in the understanding of the relationship between the atomic-scale structure of minerals and their function; in nature, prominent examples would be accurate measurement and prediction of the elastic properties of minerals, which has led to new insight into seismological behaviour of rocks and depth-related discontinuities in seismograms of the Earth's mantle . To this end, in their focus on

3825-542: The ground. The Americans landed sixty sailors to attack the hostile natives. Close to eighty Fijians were killed in the resulting American reprisal and two villages were burned to the ground. On August 9, after three months of surveying, the squadron met off Macuata . The Vincennes and Peacock proceeded onwards to the Sandwich Islands, with the Flying Fish and Porpoise to meet them in Oahu by October. Along

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3900-625: The growth of agricultural crops. Mineral collecting is also a recreational study and collection hobby , with clubs and societies representing the field. Museums, such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals , the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County , the Carnegie Museum of Natural History , the Natural History Museum, London , and

3975-694: The high temperatures and pressures of igneous melts deep within the Earth's crust to the low temperature precipitation from a saline brine at the Earth's surface. Various possible methods of formation include: Biomineralogy is a cross-over field between mineralogy, paleontology and biology . It is the study of how plants and animals stabilize minerals under biological control, and the sequencing of mineral replacement of those minerals after deposition. It uses techniques from chemical mineralogy, especially isotopic studies, to determine such things as growth forms in living plants and animals as well as things like

4050-529: The interior of a shell), fibrous , splintery , hackly (jagged with sharp edges), or uneven . If the mineral is well crystallized, it will also have a distinctive crystal habit (for example, hexagonal, columnar, botryoidal ) that reflects the crystal structure or internal arrangement of atoms. It is also affected by crystal defects and twinning . Many crystals are polymorphic , having more than one possible crystal structure depending on factors such as pressure and temperature. The crystal structure

4125-524: The island. The Vincennes and Porpoise reached Cape Disappointment on April 28, 1841, but then headed north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca , Port Discovery , and Fort Nisqually , where they were welcomed by William Henry McNeill and Alexander Caulfield Anderson . The Porpoise surveyed the Admiralty Inlet , while boats from the Vincennes surveyed Hood Canal , and the coast northwards to

4200-422: The latter of which has enabled extremely accurate atomic-scale simulations of the behaviour of crystals, the science has branched out to consider more general problems in the fields of inorganic chemistry and solid-state physics . It, however, retains a focus on the crystal structures commonly encountered in rock-forming minerals (such as the perovskites , clay minerals and framework silicates ). In particular,

4275-540: The lattice: reflection , rotation , inversion , and rotary inversion , a combination of rotation and reflection. Together, they make up a mathematical object called a crystallographic point group or crystal class . There are 32 possible crystal classes. In addition, there are operations that displace all the points: translation , screw axis , and glide plane . In combination with the point symmetries, they form 230 possible space groups . Most geology departments have X-ray powder diffraction equipment to analyze

4350-664: The locations given. The squadron arrived in the Madeira Islands on September 16, 1838, and Porto Praya on October 6. The Peacock arrived at Rio de Janeiro on November 21, and the Vincennes with brigs and schooners on November 24. However, the Relief did not arrive until the November 27, setting a record for slowness, 100 days. While there, they used Enxados Island in Guanabara Bay for an observatory and naval yard for repair and refitting. The Squadron did not leave Rio de Janeiro until January 6, 1839, arriving at

4425-639: The mouth of the Río Negro on January 25. On February 19, the squadron joined the Relief , Flying Fish , and Sea Gull in Orange Harbor, Hoste Island , after passing through Le Maire Strait . While there, the expedition came in contact with the Fuegians . Wilkes sent an expedition south in an attempt to exceed Captain Cook 's farthest point south, 71°10'. The Flying Fish reached 70° on March 22, in

4500-594: The orientations of crystal faces can be expressed in terms of rational numbers, as later encoded in the Miller indices. In 1814, Jöns Jacob Berzelius introduced a classification of minerals based on their chemistry rather than their crystal structure. William Nicol developed the Nicol prism , which polarizes light, in 1827–1828 while studying fossilized wood; Henry Clifton Sorby showed that thin sections of minerals could be identified by their optical properties using

4575-440: The original mineral content of fossils. A new approach to mineralogy called mineral evolution explores the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere, including the role of minerals in the origin of life and processes as mineral-catalyzed organic synthesis and the selective adsorption of organic molecules on mineral surfaces. In 2011, several researchers began to develop a Mineral Evolution Database. This database integrates

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4650-491: The processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization. Early writing on mineralogy, especially on gemstones , comes from ancient Babylonia , the ancient Greco-Roman world, ancient and medieval China , and Sanskrit texts from ancient India and the ancient Islamic world. Books on the subject included the Natural History of Pliny

4725-467: The report on botany in 1854, but Wilkes was unable to secure the funding for the second volume. [REDACTED] Media related to United States Exploring Expedition at Wikimedia Commons Mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry , crystal structure , and physical (including optical ) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts . Specific studies within mineralogy include

4800-706: The same in a hand sample, for example quartz and its polymorphs tridymite and cristobalite . Isomorphous minerals of different compositions have similar powder diffraction patterns, the main difference being in spacing and intensity of lines. For example, the Na Cl ( halite ) crystal structure is space group Fm3m ; this structure is shared by sylvite ( K Cl ), periclase ( Mg O ), bunsenite ( Ni O ), galena ( Pb S ), alabandite ( Mn S ), chlorargyrite ( Ag Cl ), and osbornite ( Ti N ). A few minerals are chemical elements , including sulfur , copper , silver , and gold , but

4875-402: The ship, to converse with Hudson, who ordered Walker to return to shore and demand the return of the sailor. Walker then reboarded his boats with his landing party and headed to shore. Walker shouted his demand and the natives charged for him, forcing the boats to turn back to the ships. It was decided on the next day that the Americans would bombard the hostiles and land again. While doing this,

4950-461: The son of the local chief, who was being held as a hostage by the Americans, escaped by jumping out of the boat and running through the shallow water for shore. The Americans fired over his head. According to members of the expedition party on the boat, his escape was intended as a prearranged signal by the Fijians to attack. According to those on shore, the shooting actually precipitated the attack on

5025-400: The subject. Systematic scientific studies of minerals and rocks developed in post- Renaissance Europe. The modern study of mineralogy was founded on the principles of crystallography (the origins of geometric crystallography, itself, can be traced back to the mineralogy practiced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) and to the microscopic study of rock sections with the invention of

5100-425: The vast majority are compounds . The classical method for identifying composition is wet chemical analysis , which involves dissolving a mineral in an acid such as hydrochloric acid (HCl). The elements in solution are then identified using colorimetry , volumetric analysis or gravimetric analysis . Since 1960, most chemistry analysis is done using instruments. One of these, atomic absorption spectroscopy ,

5175-496: The vessels left the naval port of Hampton Roads , Virginia. The fleet then headed to Madeira , taking advantage of the prevailing winds. The expedition consisted of nearly 350 men, many of whom were not assigned to any specific vessel. Others served on more than one vessel. Wilkes was to search in the Atlantic for various vigias or shoals, such as those reported by John Purdy , but failed to corroborate those claims for

5250-598: The way, Wilkes named the Phoenix Group and made a stop at the Palmyra Atoll , making their group the first scientific expedition in history to visit Palmyra. While in Hawaii, the officers were welcomed by Governor Kekūanaōʻa , King Kamehameha III , his aide William Richards , and the journalist James Jackson Jarves . The expedition surveyed Kauai , Oahu , Hawaii , and the peak of Mauna Loa . The Porpoise

5325-535: Was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones . Funding for the original expedition was requested by President John Quincy Adams in 1828; however, Congress would not implement funding until eight years later. In May 1836, the oceanic exploration voyage

5400-635: Was chiefly engaged in preparing the expedition report. Twenty-eight volumes were planned, but only nineteen were published. Of these, Wilkes wrote the multi-volume Narrative of the United States exploring expedition, during 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842 , Hydrography , and Meteorology . The Narrative concerns the customs, political and economic conditions of many places then little-known. Other contributions were three reports by James Dwight Dana on Zoophytes , Geology , and Crustacea . In addition to shorter articles and reports, Wilkes published Western America, including California and Oregon , and Theory of

5475-778: Was deemed responsible for the attack against US sailors on Ono Island in 1836. Vendovi was taken back to the US, but died shortly after his arrival in New York. His skull was then added to the expedition collections and put on display in the Patent Office building in Washington, D.C. In July 1840, two members of the party, Lieutenant Underwood and Wilkes' nephew, Midshipman Wilkes Henry, were killed while bartering for food in western Fiji 's Malolo Island. The cause of this event remains equivocal. Immediately prior to their deaths,

5550-597: Was dispatched in November to survey several of the Tuamotus , including Aratika , Kauehi , Raraka , and Katiu , and then proceeded to Penrhyn before returning to Oahu on 24 March. On April 5, 1841, the squadron departed Honolulu , the Porpoise and Vincennes for the Pacific Northwest, the Peacock and Flying Fish to resurvey Samoa, before rejoining the squadron. Along the way, the Peacock and Flying Fish surveyed Jarvis Island , Enderbury Island ,

5625-493: Was finally authorized by Congress and created by President Andrew Jackson . The expedition is sometimes called the U.S. Ex. Ex. for short, or the Wilkes Expedition in honor of its next appointed commanding officer, United States Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes . The expedition was of major importance to the growth of science in the United States, in particular the then-young field of oceanography . During

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