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60-607: The Seminci conventionally takes place every October , about a month later than the San Sebastián Film Festival , the most prestigious film festival in Spain. The first edition of the festival began on 20 March 1956 under the name of Semana de Cine Religioso de Valladolid with the goal of promoting Catholic moral values in conjunction with the celebration of Holy Week in Valladolid. For the first two years it

120-463: A mineraloid , unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are considered minerals . It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock , being most commonly found with limonite , sandstone , rhyolite , marl , and basalt . The name opal is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit word upala ( उपल ), which means 'jewel', and later

180-436: A doublet opal can produce a similar effect to Natural black or boulder opal at a fraction of the price. Doublet opal also has the added benefit of having genuine opal as the top visible and touchable layer, unlike triplet opals. Besides the gemstone varieties that show a play of color, the other kinds of common opal include the milk opal, milky bluish to greenish (which can sometimes be of gemstone quality); resin opal, which

240-467: A fresh bay leaf and held in the hand. As a result, the opal was seen as the patron gemstone for thieves during the medieval period . Following the publication of Sir Walter Scott 's Anne of Geierstein in 1829, opal acquired a less auspicious reputation. In Scott's novel, the Baroness of Arnheim wears an opal talisman with supernatural powers. When a drop of holy water falls on the talisman,

300-403: A hazy-milky- turbid sheen from within the stone. In gemology , this optical effect is strictly defined as opalescence which is a form of adularescence. "Girasol opal" is a term sometimes mistakenly and improperly used to refer to fire opals, as well as a type of transparent to semitransparent type milky quartz from Madagascar which displays an asterism, or star effect when cut properly. However,

360-590: A high polish and acts as a protective layer for the opal. The top layer also acts as a magnifier, to emphasize the play of color of the opal beneath, which is often an inferior specimen or an extremely thin section of precious opal. Triplet opals tend to have a more artificial appearance and are not classed as precious gemstones, but rather "composite" gemstones. Jewelry applications of precious opal can be somewhat limited by opal's sensitivity to heat due primarily to its relatively high water content and predisposition to scratching. Combined with modern techniques of polishing,

420-405: A relatively thin layer of precious opal, backed by a layer of dark-colored material, most commonly ironstone, dark or black common opal (potch), onyx, or obsidian. The darker backing emphasizes the play of color and results in a more attractive display than a lighter potch. An opal triplet is similar to a doublet but has a third layer, a domed cap of clear quartz or plastic on the top. The cap takes

480-404: A stone has been created to be chemically and structurally indistinguishable from a genuine one, and genuine opal contains no resins or polymers. The finest modern lab-created opals do not exhibit the lizard skin or columnar patterning of earlier lab-created varieties, and their patterns are non-directional. They can still be distinguished from genuine opals, however, by their lack of inclusions and

540-578: A tendency to crack. These qualities made it unpopular in the gem trade. In 2008, a new opal deposit was found approximately 180 km north of Shewa Province, near the town of Wegeltena , in Ethiopia's Wollo Province . The Wollo Province opal was different from the previous Ethiopian opal finds in that it more closely resembled the sedimentary opals of Australia and Brazil, with a light background and often vivid play-of-color. Wollo Province opal, more commonly referred to as "Welo" or "Wello" opal, has become

600-528: A transparent to translucent opal with warm body colors of yellow to orange to red. Although fire opals don't usually show any play of color, they occasionally exhibit bright green flashes. The most famous source of fire opals is the state of Querétaro in Mexico; these opals are commonly called Mexican fire opals. Fire opals that do not show a play of color are sometimes referred to as jelly opals. Mexican opals are sometimes cut in their rhyolitic host material if it

660-551: Is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus c.  750 BC , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ôctō meaning "eight") after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally been created by the Romans. In Ancient Rome , one of three Mundus patet would take place on October 5, Meditrinalia October 11, Augustalia on October 12, October Horse on October 15, and Armilustrium on October 19. These dates do not correspond to

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720-514: Is a form of opal, as well as a type of petrified wood which has developed an opalescent sheen or, more rarely, where the wood has been completely replaced by opal. Other names for this opalized sheen-like wood are opalized wood and opalized petrified wood . It is often used as a gemstone . Opals of all varieties have been synthesized experimentally and commercially. The discovery of the ordered sphere structure of precious opal led to its synthesis by Pierre Gilson in 1974. The resulting material

780-721: Is a major source of opal. The world's largest and most valuable gem opal " Olympic Australis " was found in August 1956 at the "Eight Mile" opal field in Coober Pedy. It weighs 17,000 carats (3.4 kg; 7.5 lb) and is 11 inches (280 mm) long, with a height of 4 + 3 ⁄ 4  in (120 mm) and a width of 4 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (110 mm). The Mintabie Opal Field in South Australia located about 250 km (160 mi) northwest of Coober Pedy has also produced large quantities of crystal opal and

840-419: Is a prime determinant of the quality of precious opal. Where the distance between the regularly packed planes of spheres is around half the wavelength of a component of visible light , the light of that wavelength may be subject to diffraction from the grating created by the stacked planes. The colors that are observed are determined by the spacing between the planes and the orientation of planes with respect to

900-708: Is a semi-opaque to opaque blue-green stone found in Peru, which is often cut to include the matrix in the more opaque stones. It does not display a play of color. Blue opal also comes from Oregon and Idaho in the Owyhee region, as well as from Nevada around the Virgin Valley . Opal is also formed by diatoms . Diatoms are a form of algae that, when they die, often form layers at the bottoms of lakes, bays, or oceans. Their cell walls are made up of hydrated silicon dioxide which gives them structural coloration and therefore

960-559: Is adapted from the Latin term opalus . The origin of this word in turn is a matter of debate, but most modern references suggest it is adapted from the Sanskrit word úpala meaning ‘precious stone’. As references to the gem are made by Pliny the Elder , one theory attributed the name's origin to Roman mythology: to have been adapted from Ops , the wife of Saturn , and goddess of fertility. (The portion of Saturnalia devoted to Ops

1020-540: Is characteristic of all "fire opals," including "Mexican fire opal". The oldest mine in Querétaro is Santa Maria del Iris. This mine was opened around 1870 and has been reopened at least 28 times since. At the moment there are about 100 mines in the regions around Querétaro, but most of them are now closed. The best quality of opals came from the mine Santa Maria del Iris, followed by La Hacienda la Esperanza, Fuentezuelas, La Carbonera, and La Trinidad. Important deposits in

1080-421: Is composed of silica spheres some 150–300 nm (5.9 × 10 –1.18 × 10  in) in diameter in a hexagonal or cubic close-packed lattice . It was shown by J. V. Sanders in the mid-1960s that these ordered silica spheres produce the internal colors by causing the interference and diffraction of light passing through the microstructure of the opal. The regularity of the sizes and the packing of these spheres

1140-542: Is considered a "lode" deposit. Opals which have weathered out of the in situ deposits are alluvial and considered placer deposits . Miocene -age opalised teeth, bones, fish, and a snake head have been found. Some of the opal has high water content and may desiccate and crack when dried. The largest producing mines of Virgin Valley have been the famous Rainbow Ridge, Royal Peacock, Bonanza, Opal Queen, and WRT Stonetree/Black Beauty mines. The largest unpolished black opal in

1200-596: Is distinguishable from natural opal by its regularity; under magnification, the patches of color are seen to be arranged in a "lizard skin" or "chicken wire" pattern. Furthermore, synthetic opals do not fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Synthetics are also generally lower in density and are often highly porous. Opals which have been created in a laboratory are often termed "lab-created opals", which, while classifiable as man-made and synthetic, are very different from their resin-based counterparts which are also considered man-made and synthetic. The term "synthetic" implies that

1260-411: Is hard enough to allow cutting and polishing. This type of Mexican opal is referred to as a Cantera opal. Another type of opal from Mexico, referred to as Mexican water opal, is a colorless opal that exhibits either a bluish or golden internal sheen. Opal occurs in significant quantity and variety in central Mexico, where mining and production first originated in the state of Querétaro . In this region

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1320-428: Is honey-yellow with a resinous luster; wood opal, which is caused by the replacement of the organic material in wood with opal; menilite , which is brown or grey; hyalite , a colorless glass-clear opal sometimes called Muller's glass; geyserite , also called siliceous sinter , deposited around hot springs or geysers ; and diatomaceous earth , the accumulations of diatom shells or tests. Common opal often displays

1380-486: Is in its postseason with the League Championship Series and World Series . Days on which all four leagues play are colloquially known as a sports equinox . Opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO 2 · n H 2 O); its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% and 10%. Due to the amorphous chemical structure, it is classified as

1440-401: Is opal-AG consisting of aggregated spheres of silica, with water filling the space in between. Precious opal and potch opal are generally varieties of this, the difference being in the regularity of the sizes of the spheres and their packing. The second "opal-A" is opal-AN or water-containing amorphous silica-glass. Hyalite is another name for this. Noncrystalline silica in siliceous sediments

1500-435: Is reported to gradually transform to opal-CT and then opal-C as a result of diagenesis , due to the increasing overburden pressure in sedimentary rocks, as some of the stacking disorder is removed. The surface of opal in contact with water is covered by siloxane bonds (≡Si–O–Si≡) and silanol groups (≡Si–OH). This makes the opal surface very hydrophilic and capable of forming numerous hydrogen bonds . The word 'opal'

1560-469: Is several hundred times larger than the fundamental structure of crystalline silica. As a mineraloid , no unit cell describes the structure of opal. Nevertheless, opals can be roughly divided into those that show no signs of crystalline order ( amorphous opal) and those that show signs of the beginning of crystalline order, commonly termed cryptocrystalline or microcrystalline opal. Dehydration experiments and infrared spectroscopy have shown that most of

1620-486: Is termed play of color . In gemology, opalescence is applied to the hazy-milky- turbid sheen of common or potch opal which does not show a play of color. Opalescence is a form of adularescence . For gemstone use, most opal is cut and polished to form a cabochon . "Natural" opal refers to polished stones consisting wholly of precious opal. Opals too thin to produce a "natural" opal may be combined with other materials to form "composite" gems. An opal doublet consists of

1680-524: The tourmaline and opal . Its birth flower is the calendula . The zodiac signs are Libra (until October 22) and Scorpio (from October 23 onward). This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance. (All Baha'i, Islamic, and Jewish observances begin at the sundown prior to the date listed, and end at sundown of the date in question unless otherwise noted.) The last two to three weeks in October (and, occasionally,

1740-512: The Greek derivative opállios ( ὀπάλλιος ). There are two broad classes of opal: precious and common. Precious opal displays play-of-color ( iridescence ); common opal does not. Play-of-color is defined as "a pseudo chromatic optical effect resulting in flashes of colored light from certain minerals, as they are turned in white light." The internal structure of precious opal causes it to diffract light, resulting in play-of-color. Depending on

1800-527: The H 2 O in the formula of SiO 2 · n H 2 O of opals is present in the familiar form of clusters of molecular water. Isolated water molecules, and silanols , structures such as SiOH, generally form a lesser proportion of the total and can reside near the surface or in defects inside the opal. The structure of low-pressure polymorphs of anhydrous silica consists of frameworks of fully corner bonded tetrahedra of SiO 4 . The higher temperature polymorphs of silica cristobalite and tridymite are frequently

1860-747: The Smithsonian Institution, known as the "Roebling opal", came out of the tunneled portion of the Rainbow Ridge Mine in 1917, and weighs 2,585 carats (517.0 g; 18.24 oz). The largest polished black opal in the Smithsonian Institution comes from the Royal Peacock opal mine in the Virgin Valley, weighing 160 carats (32 g; 1.1 oz), known as the "Black Peacock". Fire opal is

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1920-579: The absence of any surrounding non-opal matrix . While many genuine opals are cut and polished without a matrix, the presence of irregularities in their play-of-color continues to mark them as distinct from even the best lab-created synthetics. Other research in macroporous structures have yielded highly ordered materials that have similar optical properties to opals and have been used in cosmetics. Synthetic opals are also deeply investigated in photonics for sensing and light management purposes. The lattice of spheres of opal that cause interference with light

1980-434: The appearance of tiny opals when viewed under a microscope. These cell walls or "tests" form the “grains” for the diatomaceous earth . This sedimentary rock is white, opaque, and chalky in texture. Diatomite has multiple industrial uses such as filtering or adsorbing since it has a fine particle size and very porous nature, and gardening to increase water absorption. Opal was rare and very valuable in antiquity. In Europe, it

2040-427: The conditions in which it formed, opal may be transparent, translucent, or opaque, and the background color may be white, black, or nearly any color of the visual spectrum. Black opal is considered the rarest, while white, gray, and green opals are the most common. Precious opal shows a variable interplay of internal colors, and though it is a mineraloid, it has an internal structure. At microscopic scales, precious opal

2100-419: The dominant Ethiopian opal in the gem trade. The Virgin Valley opal fields of Humboldt County in northern Nevada produce a wide variety of precious black, crystal, white, fire, and lemon opal. The black fire opal is the official gemstone of Nevada. Most of the precious opal is partial wood replacement. The precious opal is hosted and found in situ within a subsurface horizon or zone of bentonite , which

2160-692: The festival was headed by Javier Angulo. In 2023, José Luis Cienfuegos was named as the new director of the Seminci. He was previously the director of the Gijón International Film Festival (1995–2011) and the Seville European Film Festival (2012–2022). Films compete for the Golden Spike  [ es ] ( Espiga de Oro ), the top prize awarded at the festival. A list displaying some of

2220-629: The festival was renamed Semana Internacional de Cine Religioso y de Valores Humanos (the International Week of Religious Cinema and Human Values) and the theme of the films was expanded, accepting those in which human and committed values prevailed. That year the Golden Spike also began to be awarded, alongside the existing prizes and (since 1961) the San Gregorio Prize. In 1973 the festival adopted its current name, due to

2280-585: The first appearances of opallios do not occur until after the Romans had taken over the Greek states in 180 BC and they had previously used the term paederos . However, the argument for the Sanskrit origin is strong. The term first appears in Roman references around 250 BC, at a time when the opal was valued above all other gems. The opals were supplied by traders from the Bosporus , who claimed

2340-778: The first to crystallize from amorphous anhydrous silica, and the local structures of microcrystalline opals also appear to be closer to that of cristobalite and tridymite than to quartz. The structures of tridymite and cristobalite are closely related and can be described as hexagonal and cubic close-packed layers. It is therefore possible to have intermediate structures in which the layers are not regularly stacked. Microcrystalline opal or Opal-CT has been interpreted as consisting of clusters of stacked cristobalite and tridymite over very short length scales. The spheres of opal in microcrystalline opal are themselves made up of tiny nanocrystalline blades of cristobalite and tridymite. Microcrystalline opal has occasionally been further subdivided in

2400-701: The first week of November) are normally the only time of the year during which all of the "Big Four" major professional sports leagues in the U.S. and Canada schedule games; the National Basketball Association begins its preseason and about two weeks later starts the regular season, the National Hockey League is in the first month of its regular season, the National Football League is about halfway through its regular season, and Major League Baseball

2460-470: The gems were being supplied from India. Before this, the stone was referred to by a variety of names, but these fell from use after 250 BC. In the Middle Ages, opal was considered a stone that could provide great luck because it was believed to possess all the virtues of each gemstone whose color was represented in the color spectrum of the opal. It was also said to grant invisibility if wrapped in

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2520-556: The global supply of opal comes from either country. Australian opal has been cited as accounting for 95–97% of the world's supply of precious opal, with the state of South Australia accounting for 80% of the world's supply. In 2012, Ethiopian opal production was estimated to be 14,000 kg (31,000 lb) by the United States Geological Survey. USGS data from the same period (2012), reveals Australian opal production to be $ 41 million. Because of

2580-455: The incident light. The process can be described by Bragg's law of diffraction. Visible light cannot pass through large thicknesses of the opal. This is the basis of the optical band gap in a photonic crystal . In addition, microfractures may be filled with secondary silica and form thin lamellae inside the opal during its formation. The term opalescence is commonly used to describe this unique and beautiful phenomenon, which in gemology

2640-411: The literature. Water content may be as high as 10 wt%. Opal-CT, also called lussatine or lussatite , is interpreted as consisting of localized order of α-cristobalite with a lot of stacking disorder. Typical water content is about 1.5 wt%. Two broad categories of noncrystalline opals, sometimes just referred to as "opal-A" ("A" stands for "amorphous"), have been proposed. The first of these

2700-705: The modern Gregorian calendar. Among the Anglo-Saxons , it was known as Winterfylleth (Ƿinterfylleþ), because at this full moon, winter was supposed to begin. October is commonly associated with the season of spring in parts of the Southern Hemisphere , and autumn in parts of the Northern Hemisphere , where it is the seasonal equivalent to April in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. October's birthstones are

2760-474: The opal deposits are located mainly in the mountain ranges of three municipalities: Colón , Tequisquiapan , and Ezequiel Montes . During the 1960s through to the mid-1970s, the Querétaro mines were heavily mined. Today's opal miners report that it was much easier to find quality opals with a lot of fire and play of color back then, whereas today the gem-quality opals are very hard to come by and command hundreds of US dollars or more. The orange-red background color

2820-579: The opal found there occurs in thin layers. Other significant deposits of precious opal around the world can be found in the Czech Republic, Canada, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil (in Pedro II, Piauí ), Honduras (more precisely in Erandique ), Guatemala, and Nicaragua. In late 2008, NASA announced the discovery of opal deposits on Mars . Wood opal , also known as xylopal ,

2880-517: The opal turns into a colorless stone and the Baroness dies soon thereafter. Due to the popularity of Scott's novel, people began to associate opals with bad luck and death. Within a year of the publishing of Scott's novel in April 1829, the sale of opals in Europe dropped by 50%, and remained low for the next 20 years or so. Even as recently as the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that when

2940-542: The opals from Australia (some of these opals are carefully treated with heat to improve their colors so high-quality opals from this area may be suspect). There are also some small opal mines in Morelos , Durango , Chihuahua , Baja California , Guanajuato , Puebla , Michoacán , and Estado de México . Another source of white base opal or creamy opal in the United States is Spencer, Idaho . A high percentage of

3000-787: The play of color), collected from the Griman Creek Formation . Boulder opal consists of concretions and fracture fillings in a dark siliceous ironstone matrix. It is found sporadically in western Queensland, from Kynuna in the north, to Yowah and Koroit in the south. Its largest quantities are found around Jundah and Quilpie in South West Queensland . Australia also has opalized fossil remains, including dinosaur bones in New South Wales and South Australia, and marine creatures in South Australia. It has been reported that Northern African opal

3060-692: The progressive increase in the films in competition and increased interest from producers. The end of the Franco dictatorship made it possible to leave behind the religious character. The following year the Lábaro disappeared and the Espiga became the main award. Subsequently, the awards for best actor and actress (1979), best screenplay (1984), best first film (1989), the Jury (1991) and the best new director (1992), among others, were introduced. Since 2008, for 15 years,

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3120-579: The rarer black opal. Over the years, it has been sold overseas incorrectly as Coober Pedy opal. The black opal is said to be some of the best examples found in Australia. Andamooka in South Australia is also a major producer of matrix opal, crystal opal, and black opal. Another Australian town, Lightning Ridge in New South Wales , is the main source of black opal, opal containing a predominantly dark background (dark gray to blue-black displaying

3180-655: The state of Jalisco were not discovered until the late 1950s. In 1957, Alfonso Ramirez (of Querétaro) accidentally discovered the first opal mine in Jalisco: La Unica, located on the outer area of the volcano of Tequila, near the Huitzicilapan farm in Magdalena . By 1960 there were around 500 known opal mines in this region alone. Other regions of the country that also produce opals (of lesser quality) are Guerrero , which produces an opaque opal similar to

3240-424: The true girasol opal is a type of hyalite opal that exhibits a bluish glow or sheen that follows the light source around. It is not a play of color as seen in precious opal, but rather an effect from microscopic inclusions. It is also sometimes referred to as water opal, too, when it is from Mexico. The two most notable locations of this type of opal are Oregon and Mexico. A Peruvian opal (also called blue opal)

3300-602: The units of measurement, it is not possible to directly compare Australian and Ethiopian opal production, but these data and others suggest that the traditional percentages given for Australian opal production may be overstated. Yet, the validity of data in the USGS report appears to conflict with that of Laurs et al. and Mesfin, who estimated the 2012 Ethiopian opal output (from Wegeltena ) to be only 750 kg (1,650 lb). The town of Coober Pedy in South Australia

3360-564: The winners is as follows: In 2016 the Seminci was recognized with the Castilla y León Prize for the Arts, the highest institutional award from the region of Castile and León . 41°39′14″N 4°43′28″W  /  41.65389°N 4.72444°W  / 41.65389; -4.72444 October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars . Its length

3420-532: Was "Opalia", similar to opalus .) Another common claim was that the term was adapted from the Ancient Greek word, opallios . This word has two meanings, one is related to "seeing" and forms the basis of the English words like "opaque"; the other is "other" as in "alias" and "alter". It is claimed that opalus combined these uses, meaning "to see a change in color". However, historians have noted

3480-497: Was a gem prized by royalty. Until the opening of vast deposits in Australia in the 19th century the only known source was Červenica beyond the Roman frontier in Slovakia . Opal is the national gemstone of Australia. The primary sources of opal are Australia and Ethiopia, but because of inconsistent and widely varying accountings of their respective levels of extraction, it is difficult to accurately state what proportion of

3540-575: Was not competitive and no prizes were awarded. In 1958 the Don Bosco gold and silver awards and the Special Mention appeared, which the following year were replaced by the Lábaro and the Ciudad de Valladolid Award, respectively. The films to be shown were already selected according to quality and not quantity criteria, even if that meant having an insufficient number of films. Starting in 1960,

3600-477: Was used to make tools as early as 4000 BC. The first published report of gem opal from Ethiopia appeared in 1994, with the discovery of precious opal in the Menz Gishe District, North Shewa Province. The opal, found mostly in the form of nodules, was of volcanic origin and was found predominantly within weathered layers of rhyolite . This Shewa Province opal was mostly dark brown in color and had

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