Visual Entry · evidence-aware deep view
Wollo Opal Play-of-Color
A Wollo opal can break light into shifting spectral patches known as play-of-color.
Visual literacy · read before concluding
Four questions for this image
Awe is the invitation. Interpretation starts by separating the subject, scale, representation, mechanism, and evidence.
1 · What am I looking at?
A Wollo opal can break light into shifting spectral patches known as play-of-color.
Displayed: visualization
2 · At what scale?
Object scale. A bounded object or specimen read at human viewing scale.
3 · How was it represented?
Displayed media: Deterministic ICU-authored vector explanatory visualization.
Reviewed source method: Not established in normalized record
BVU does not infer an imaging/capture method from appearance alone. Follow the reviewed source record for further context.
4 · What creates the visible effect?
source backed: The Smithsonian identifies the Wollo, Ethiopia opal specimen. GIA explains that opal play-of-color arises from light interacting with orderly arrays of microscopic silica spheres, producing diffraction-related spectral color.
Current visual-property tags: iridescence, color.
Explanation boundary
Why it looks this way
Only source-backed claims can carry the mechanism/explanation role here. Curated or unknown material stays visibly separate.
The Smithsonian identifies the Wollo, Ethiopia opal specimen. GIA explains that opal play-of-color arises from light interacting with orderly arrays of microscopic silica spheres, producing diffraction-related spectral color.
Provenance & evidence
Know what supports the entry.
Source pages support subject identity and claims. The displayed SVG has its own representation and rights record.
It describes the relationship between a factual statement and reviewed evidence. It does not mean the SVG shown on this page is a source photograph, museum image or scientific plate.
Opal, Wollo, Ethiopia
- Canonical locator
- https://www.si.edu/object/opal%3Anmnhmineralsciences_13140549
- Source date
- Not specified in record
- Creator / author
- Not specified in record
- Rights note
- Smithsonian collection source page reviewed; factual/provenance use here.
Opal
- Canonical locator
- https://www.gia.edu/opal
- Source date
- Not specified in record
- Creator / author
- Not specified in record
- Rights note
- GIA educational source used to support the play-of-color explanation.
Runtime-media boundary
Documentary source pages reviewed. Published runtime media is an original explanatory SVG visualization, not a copied source image.
- reviewed_usable · Original deterministic SVG explanatory visualizations authored for BVU004. These files are ICU-owned presentation media and are visibly labeled as visualizations, not documentary source images.
Displayed media SHA-256: bfc55d7832e169834b2c8f41e57e352d66cc081e68ec8048d8b9562ab67e1356
Documentary-media review
This entry keeps its reviewed institutional source pages as provenance/factual references. The current media audit did not promote documentary bytes because explicit reusable rights and same-origin original-byte localization were not both cleared in this bounded pass.
- Runtime image
- Existing same-origin explanatory SVG visualization
- Documentary runtime
- Not published
- Remote hotlink
- Not used
Typed connections
Follow the relationship without upgrading its evidence.
Directionality and evidence class are rendered from the canonical relationship records.
Opals
A bounded bridge into ICU’s existing Opals concept.
Curated interpretation: a deliberate discovery connection, not proof of shared cause, influence or mechanism.
Labradorite Labradorescence
Both show angle-sensitive spectral color, while their reviewed mechanisms remain distinct.
Curated interpretation: a deliberate discovery connection, not proof of shared cause, influence or mechanism.
Collections & Atlas
Return through a useful visual lens.
Collection membership is editorial discovery context, not proof of shared mechanism or origin.
Light in Materials
Materials where color and light behavior become the central visual question.
BVU004 editorial collection. Membership indicates a useful discovery grouping, not shared origin, influence or mechanism.
Curated journeys
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These paths are editorial navigation. They do not alter this entry’s claim, provenance or relationship evidence state.