GROWTH OF SILICEOUS SPICULES IN ACIDIC HOT SPRINGS, WAIOTAPU GEOTHERMAL AREA, NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Siliceous spicules, typically ≤3 cm high and ≤5 mm in diameter, are common just above water level alongside hot-spring pools and channels in the Waiotapu geothermal area of New Zealand, which contain waters of 50–80°C and pH of 1–3. These structures are formed of irregular sequences of silicified Cyanidium mats, silicified Alicyclobacillus mats, and homogeneous opal-A laminae. Allochthonous microorganisms (e.g., diatoms) form a minor part of the silicified biota. Lamina boundaries are discontinuities that reflect pauses in opal-A precipitation. Barite, gypsum, and kaolinite crystals were precipitated on the spicule surfaces during these periods. Opal-A precipitation on subaerial spicules occurs when SiO2-rich fluid is delivered by (1) splashing water and spray, (2) temporary inundation by surging spring water, wind-driven waves, or local changes in the water table following periods of heavy rain, (3) steam condensate, and/or (4) capillary action. These abiogenic processes work in conjunction with biogenic processes controlled by microbial mats, which become temporarily established on spicule surfaces when conditions permit. These mats mediate spicule construction as they become silicified, providing substrates for opal-A cement precipitation. Nevertheless, stromatolite morphology cannot be attributed to a particular taxon because different localities have different microorganisms involved with spicule growth.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".