Fluorescent Formations

[danthecavingman]

Whilst in OFD this weekend we went for a look at the mini columns. Someone told me that you can get them to fluoresce with a flash gun so we tried it. Shut your eyes really tight, fire the flash then look quickly and ooooooohhhh! :shock: Amazing! The formations actually glow blueish / green.We discovered that the more you fire the flash at them the more they "charge up" and the effect lasts longer. Anyone else seen this here or anywhere else for that matter?

Dan.

 

[SamT]

Yeah - its a bit mad innit.

 

[bubba]

If you do it for long enough, Capn James T Kirk and pals will suddenly teleport in and zap you with their phazers.

 

[Mrs Trellis]

Mineral Fluorescence

See - I'm not all fun and games.

 

[cap n chris]

BTW If you do it long enough the stal evaporates in a puff of dust and you grow hairs on your palms too.

 

[diggerdog adam]

Now then wheres that show cave where the owners shine a light on the stal then turn it off and it glows for about 5 mins its the type of light that they use in night clubs that makes white clothes glow is it UV?

The formation looks like a witch if you use some imagination !

 

[pisshead]

Now then wheres that show cave where the owners shine a light on the stal then turn it off and it glows for about 5 mins its the type of light that they use in night clubs that makes white clothes glow is it UV?

The formation looks like a witch if you use some imagination !

I think I've seen that - I was only 12, so I don't remember it well - i think if it's the same one it was one of the blue john caves in castleton - not Speedwell - i'm sure someone knows -begins with a T??

I remember an amazing photo trip in Pant Mawr where Biffa showed me formations floressing - impressive indeed

 

[Brendan]

Treak cliff cavern?

 

[Cave_Troll]

spanish caves with bolts in them?

 

[mudmonkey]

Brendan makes a perfectly adequate back-up. If he's been eating his cake and pies.

 

[Brendan]

Yes, except the back-up plan involved me jumping into a hooe we now knoe to be probably 60m deep.

 

[Dave H]

A few times I've managed a tricky climb, but my companions have not been able to - so I've dropped a ladder down to them.
Unfortunately, there's not always a belay point, so I've wedged myself in and held the ladder for them to climb up.
The ladder always seems to be appreciated at the time, but never in the pub afterwards. I wonder why? :wink:

 

[Peter Burgess]

Brendan asked if the show cave with the demo of fluorescence was

Treak cliff cavern?

Possibly. Some 15 or more years back, on a club trip to Derbyshire, we had a festerous day and visited Treak Cliff. At the bottom of the tour, we demonstrated this phenomenon to the guide, something he hadn't seen before. Perhaps they decided to add this demo to the tour? Is this being a bit presumptuous? It would be nice to think we added a bit of science to the normal showcave cr@p that you hear in some places.

 

[emgee]

Now then wheres that show cave where the owners shine a light on the stal then turn it off and it glows for about 5 mins its the type of light that they use in night clubs that makes white clothes glow is it UV?

The formation looks like a witch if you use some imagination !

White Scar have a couple of UV cannons in the final chamber of the
showcave (Battlefield?) . They kill the normal lights and let you see
the rock fluoresce. Could do with more UV to look really good.

I discovered this last year having decided to try and find out how
it's possible to eat a full Bernies breakfast and then cave. Breakfast
was most enjoyable but somehow getting changed or even moving
really got less and less attractive. Eventually managed the showcave

Some people have different metabolisms from others

 

[Cave_Troll]

now we have possibly two different things going on
Flourescence is where you shine radiation at one frequency and the object reflects it at another. often seen when you shine a UV light on things they can glow in different colours, orange, green etc

Phosphorescence is when somehting glows . if you turn off all your lights and flash gun a stall, the light will go into the stall and spend so long bouncing around the internal crystal structure (ish i know that not strictly true to the pedants) that it then comes out a short time later and the stal glows.

ISH and SORT OF.
they're kind of linked and involve excited atoms either kicking out the energy at a wavelength that you can see, or kicking out energy in a wavelength that can excite the next atom in. this atom in turn can either excite the next one in or emit light that we can see, hence the exponential decay of glowing

 

[Peter Burgess]

Check out

http://www.wcms.org.uk/cgi-bin/wcmsgallery.pl?galno=9

images 293, 294, 384, and 385

These calcite formations exhibit both phosphorescence and fluorescence.

 

[Cave_Troll]

how big was the UV light for those shots then?

 

[tubby two]

That also happens in teeth, i think its qlf or something and could possibly be used to spot decay, though i've never actually seen it myself but it just goes to prove how relevant going caving is to my dental career. Hope you're reading this mum.

tt.

 

[cucc Paul]

wow caving covers so many aspects even particle physics.... and so many peole think its throwing a delicate body down a big hard hole...

 

[Peter Burgess]

http://www.wcms.org.uk/cgi-bin/wcmsgallery.pl?galno=9

images 293, 294, 384, and 385

These photos were a time exposure using a 9-inch black-light tube in a battery-powered camping torch for illumination. Nothing fancy - although the colour in the photos is far more blue than reality. The 'true' colour is more towards a ghostly green.

Peter