title: Rick Grimes

text: Rick's group later find refuge in the Commonwealth, an organized human community despotically governed by Pamela Milton. His intentions to keep the people safe put him at odds with Milton, but gains him a lot of respect from the community, including the head of the Commonwealth guards, Mercer. Finally, when a revolt threatens to erupt, Rick quells the violence by delivering an inspirational speech. Milton is deposed and arrested, but subsequently released by Rick. However, soon afterwards Rick is murdered by Pamela's spoiled son Sebastian, who resents him; he reanimates as a walker, forcing Carl to kill him. Still, long after his tragic demise, Rick is remembered in the Commonwealth as a leader and hero.


title: Rick Grimes

text: After being hit over the head by Michonne, Rick awakes in an exploding scientific infirmary, finding his missing hand to have been restored and replaced with a robotic one. Donning armor held in his room, he falls out of a sky ship onto the ground below, where he witnesses Glenn and Douglas be torn apart by walkers. Michonne arrives on the scene and informs Rick that he had suddenly disappeared three weeks previously, a few days after which aliens had invaded and revealed themselves responsible for the creation of walkers and the downfall of human civilization, planning to use the surviving humans to harvest water, used as a currency on their planet. Rick then witnesses a resurrected cyborg Governor attack Michonne, with an also-resurrected Lori standing by his side. After being told to either join him or die, Rick smiles and prepares for battle.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the series premiere, "Days Gone Bye", before the outbreak Rick and his best friend, Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal), are in a gun battle with escaped convicts. Having been wounded, Rick lies in a coma while the zombie apocalypse begins. After awakening alone in the hospital, he walks through the neighborhood but is mistaken for a walker and hit over the head with a shovel by a child, Duane Jones (Adrian Kali Turner). Duane's father Morgan (Lennie James) takes Rick in and explains the sickness to him. Rick sets off in search of his wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), and young son, Carl (Chandler Riggs), along the way witnessing what has happened to the world. In downtown Atlanta Rick is attacked by a horde of walkers and hides inside a tank. In the episode "Guts", a young man named Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) rescues Rick from the tank and leads him to a group of survivors scavenging for supplies. The building they are in is attacked by walkers and the group flees the city, forced to leave subdued and chained group member, Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) behind. In the episode "Tell It to the Frogs", the survivors lead Rick to their campsite where he happily reunites with Lori and Carl, as well as Shane. Merle's brother Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), however, demands that a group return to the city to find him; Rick also wants to retrieve a bag of guns. They discover that Merle cut off his hand to escape. In the episode "Vatos", they return to the campsite just in time to save the remaining survivors as a group of walkers overrun the camp. In the episode "Wildfire", after many losses the group leaves the insecure campsite and travel to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the hope of finding a cure. In the season finale, "TS-19", the group is hoping for a new home, but unfortunately finds no answers at the CDC. The last remaining employee there, a medical doctor and researcher named Edwin Jenner (Noah Emmerich), reveals that the building will soon self-destruct, and whispers something in Rick's ear before the group escapes the doomed facility.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season premiere, "What Lies Ahead", Carl is accidentally shot during the group's search for Sophia Peletier (Madison Lintz), Carol's (Melissa McBride) daughter, who was chased away by walkers during the group's escape from Atlanta. In the episode "Bloodletting", the shooter, Otis, takes them to an isolated farm occupied by Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson), a veterinarian who works to save Carl's life by using a transfusion of Rick's blood. Carl recovers with Shane's help in the episode "Cherokee Rose". In the episode "Secrets", Lori tells Rick that she is pregnant and reveals that she and Shane had been together after she believed he died. In the mid-season finale, "Pretty Much Dead Already", the group discovers that Hershel has kept walkers in the barn, including his family, believing that he can save them. Despite Rick's refusal, Shane opens the barn and kills the walkers inside, until one is revealed to be Sophia. Left with no other choice, Rick shoots Sophia dead. In the mid-season premiere, "Nebraska", Rick is forced to kill two men in a bar to protect the group, but takes one of their group members, Randall Culver (Michael Zegen), as a prisoner in the episode "Triggerfinger". In the episode "Better Angels", Rick decides to keep the prisoner alive. Shane ultimately kills Randall, and then tries to kill Rick, who stabs him in the heart in self-defense. Shane comes back to life as a walker, but Carl kills him. In the season finale, "Beside the Dying Fire", a walker horde overruns the farm. Rick reveals to the escaped group that Jenner had told him that everyone is infected. He tells Lori he killed Shane to protect himself as well as the group, but she recoils from him, horrified. Rick then coldly dares any would-be traitors to abandon the safety of the group.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season premiere, "Seed", eight months have passed and Rick and Lori's relationship has deteriorated. The group finds an overrun prison facility and decide to settle there. When exploring the building's interior, they encounter some prisoners, who try to assassinate Rick and then unleash walkers into the facility, causing Lori's death. Rick falls into a downward spiral and begins hallucinating, imagining a series of phone calls and seeing visions of Lori in the prison courtyard. He comes into conflict with The Governor (David Morrissey), the leader of a small town called Woodbury, after Michonne (Danai Gurira), a mysterious katana-wielding survivor arrives at the prison to reveal Glenn and Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan) have been kidnapped (in order to gain information on the location of the prison, a more secure environment than Woodbury). Rick follows Michonne while somewhat distrustful of her in the episode "Made to Suffer" and retrieves the couple by killing several soldiers and consequently causing a firefight in the streets. The Governor launches an assault on the prison in the episode "Home" in retaliation. A former member of Rick's group, Andrea (Laurie Holden), now a Woodbury citizen and The Governor's lover, unsuccessfully tries to negotiate terms of peace with the two conflicting communities in the episodes "I Ain't a Judas" and "Arrow on the Doorpost". In the episode "Clear", Rick and Michonne form a stronger bond on a journey to retrieve guns after the assault, where they meet the mentally unbalanced Morgan, who has lost his son. Rick refuses to give Michonne over to The Governor in the episode "This Sorrowful Life", asking Merle, The Governor's former ally, to do so. Merle ultimately sacrifices himself. In the season finale, "Welcome to the Tombs", Rick, Daryl and Michonne go out to confront The Governor after he fails to take the prison and massacres his own troops. They discover a bitten Andrea in The Governor's torture chamber. Rick reaffirms her as a group member before she uses his revolver to commit suicide to avoid turning. Rick brings the surviving residents of Woodbury—including Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) and his sister, Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green)—to the prison. He also confiscates Carl's pistol after hearing that his son killed a boy from Woodbury whom he believed to be a threat. Rick stops seeing visions of Lori, realizing his ruthlessness was the reason for her appearances.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season premiere, "30 Days Without an Accident", having relinquished leadership, Rick tries to live a quieter, peaceful life as a farmer, growing crops and raising livestock for the community. However, his new life is disrupted by the threat of an illness breaking out, in "Infected" Rick is seen for the first time with Carl taking care of the pigs and Carl asks for his gun, but the police asks him to focus on his work, suddenly the block D is attacked and Rick and Carl go to help the residents of the block D, after the attack Rick, Hershel and Dr. Subramanian examine Patrick's corpse and discover that the cause of death is an illness, shortly after Rick goes with Maggie to secure the prison fences, before a crowd of walkers trying to tear it down, the walkers begin to crush the fence, but a thinking Rick sacrifices the pigs to lure the walkers away from the prison with the help of Daryl, then he analyzes a boar that died from that same flu in The one that killed her sow Violet, Rick begins to burn the enclosure of the pigs to avoid any possibility that the possible virus continues to exist. At the same time, he returns Carl's weapon and takes out his Colt Python for protection. In the episode "Isolation", Carol admits that she killed two infected people to spare others from getting infected; Rick exiles her, Rick then burns his shirt in the fire in the following episode, "Indifference". In the episode "Internment", he resolves problems with walkers carving through the fences as the illness dies out with Hershel's medical assistance. In the mid-season finale, "Too Far Gone", The Governor returns with a militia to take over the prison and decapitates his hostage, Hershel, calling Rick a liar for proposing they can live together in the community. The Governor's men drive a tank through the fences, destroying Rick's home and causing a battle between the two sides. The Governor tries to strangle a badly wounded Rick to death, but Michonne stabs him through the chest. Rick discovers Judith's empty cradle and believes that she has been killed by walkers; heartbroken, he escapes with Carl. After reuniting with Michonne in the episode "Claimed", Rick escapes from a dangerous group called the Claimers, before travelling towards Terminus, a supposed sanctuary, in "Us", Rick is seen with Carl and Michonne, walking along the train tracks, heading to Terminus. In the season finale, "A", Rick re-encounters the Claimers, who try to kill him, as well as sexually assault Michonne and Carl, but an enraged Rick bites the leader Joe (Jeff Kober) in the neck as Michonne and the reunited Daryl (who had joined the Claimers) kill the others. The four head to Terminus, but become suspicious as they discover the inhabitants wearing the clothes belonging to the survivors they knew. The citizens of Terminus trap the group in a boxcar, where they find Glenn, Maggie, Sasha and Bob Stookey (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) and new allies Tara Chambler (Alanna Masterson), whom Rick recognizes from the prison invasion, Sergeant Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt), and Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos).


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season premiere, "No Sanctuary", Rick's group escapes Terminus as an explosion set off by Carol destroys the compound and infests it with walkers. He reunites with his daughter, Judith and graciously thanks Carol, who resettles into the group. In the episode "Strangers", the group meets Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam) who brings them to his church to stay before going to Washington, DC in hopes of a cure. In the episode "Four Walls and a Roof", Gareth and five other Terminus survivors hunt down the group, capture a bitten Bob, eat his leg and leave him as bait, before the group lure them into the church to be trapped and slaughtered. In the episode "Crossed", a rescue mission in Atlanta for Beth Greene (Emily Kinney) ensues as Daryl informs the others of her whereabouts at Grady Memorial Hospital with escapee, Noah (Tyler James Williams). A rather peaceful resolution is ultimately decided with a hostage exchange, as the group captures several police officers for the exchange. In the mid-season finale, "Coda", leading officer Dawn Lerner (Christine Woods) demands Noah back as her ward after Beth's departure, fuelling Beth to try to kill her but she is reflexively shot in the head. Dawn is immediately killed by Daryl and a stand-off is defused by Officer Shepherd. In the mid-season premiere, "What Happened and What's Going On", Rick's group travels to Virginia where Noah's community is and eventually strive for Washington despite the cure being outed as false, in hopes of finding a safe haven, but suffer one more loss with Tyreese. In the episode "The Distance", the mournful group is encountered by a stranger named Aaron (Ross Marquand), claiming to be a recruiter for a community named Alexandria. While distrustful, they follow him as well as his boyfriend, Eric and discover he is telling the truth. In the episode "Remember", Deanna Monroe (Tovah Feldshuh), a former congresswoman from Ohio and leader of Alexandria interviews the group and assigns Rick as a constable in the community along with Michonne. In the episode "Try", Rick has a confrontation with Jessie's abusive husband Pete (Cory Brill), forcing Michonne to knock him unconscious. In the season finale, "Conquer", Deanna holds a meeting to potentially exile Rick, but Rick proves he is trying to ensure the community's protection from the living and the dead, before Pete shows up and tries to assassinate Rick with Michonne's katana, accidentally killing Deanna's husband in the process. With Deanna's approval, Rick shoots Pete in public as Morgan Jones arrives at the scene.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season premiere, "First Time Again", while getting reacquainted with Morgan, Rick discovers a quarry filled with hundreds of walkers held in by a barricade that is about to fail. He takes "de facto" command of Alexandria with Deanna's approval and recruits the native Alexandrians to help lure the herd away. In "Thank You", Rick and the rest of the groups follow the horn of the truck hurriedly and it separates of Glenn and Michonne, but when it tries to drive its vehicle it is attacked by a group of wolves to which Morgan let them go ahead but Rick he manages to knock down all the wolves that tried to kill him, while trying to restart the RV to go home, he discovers that the engine had been turned off, thanks to a shot fired by the blond wolf. Each failed attempt to light the RV sends Rick into a state of increasing panic, before he hears the pack's moans as they emerge from the forest beside him. The plan goes awry at several points and Rick returns to Alexandria pursued by half of the herd in the episode "Now". Deanna realizes she is no longer fit to lead the community, and officially makes Rick leader of Alexandria. In the same night, Rick shares with Jessie fears about the daunting scenario, but she encourages him by talking about the possibility of a better future, and the two end up sharing a passionate kiss. The next morning ["Heads Up"], Rick continues guarding the premises of Alexandria to ensure that their situation was not compromised, and Rick also meets with Morgan to reproach him for letting the wolves escape, which had frustrated Rick's plan to drive away the walkers. Despite having received leadership of the community, Rick continues to believe that the Alexandrians are not ready to survive in the new world. This reason leads him to scold Tara when she risks her life to save Spencer, since he felt that the effort was not worth it. Later, while looking at the balloons that Glenn and Enid had released in the sky as a sign that they were still alive, Rick and all the residents of the community witness how the watchtower that was outside Alexandria collapse on the walls, allowing the entry of the horde of walkers. In the mid-season finale, "Start to Finish", the herd breaches Alexandria's walls and Rick takes shelter with Carl, Michonne, Gabriel, Deanna, Jessie, and her sons Ron and Sam in Jessie's house. Deanna is revealed to have been bitten and asks Rick to look out for the native Alexandrians as he does his own pre-Alexandria group before she dies. Rick prepares ponchos covered in walker innards for the group to sneak through the herd to safety.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Sam suffers a mental breakdown in the mid-season premiere "No Way Out". Sam is killed, followed by his mother, and Ron shoots Carl in the eye before being killed by Michonne. While Dr. Denise Cloyd treats Carl, an enraged Rick leads nearly all of Alexandria in battling and defeating the herd. Rick tells a comatose Carl that he now has hope for the future again and plans to rebuild the town, two months later, in the episode "The Next World", Rick and Daryl meet Paul "Jesus" Rovia on a supply run and after take him back to Alexandria. He later begins a relationship with Michonne. In the episode "Knots Untie", Jesus takes Rick to the Hilltop Colony, and when he learns they live in fear of Negan and his Saviors, offers to assassinate him in exchange for a trade of supplies. After a successful raid on the Saviors in the episode "Not Tomorrow Yet", Rick believes the threat of the Saviors to have been vanquished, only to be proven wrong when Denise is killed in the episode "Twice as Far". Rick makes preparations for an attack from the Saviors in the episode "East", but in the season finale, "Last Day on Earth", when Maggie has complications in her pregnancy, leads a team to seek Dr. Carson's aid at Hilltop. The group is herded into a trap by the Saviors, and Rick watches helplessly as Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) kills two (unseen) members of the group.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season premiere, "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be", it is revealed that Negan's two victims were Abraham and Glenn. Negan torments Rick, saying that their deaths were his fault for crossing the Saviors, and threatens to kill them all unless Rick submits. In "Service", Rick is forced to abide by Negan's rules and the opposition of Spencer, whom he threatens. In "Go Getters", Rick plans an expedition to go find more supplies, knowing that the saviors will return for more offerings and Aaron offers to accompany him. Carl looks at his father reluctantly to see him too submissive to Negan's orders and began to treat him with indifference, rejecting even his offer to accompany him on the way out. Michonne gave him an intense kiss goodbye as a sign of support. In "Hearts Still Beating", Rick and Aaron return from a supply run to Negan killing Spencer. Negan explains that Spencer asked him to kill Rick so he could take over. With some prodding from Michonne, Rick agrees to stand up and fight, and goes to the Hilltop.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In "Rock in the Road", Rick attempts to gather an army to fight Negan; when Rick fails to rally enough people in Hilltop, Jesus brings them to a community known as the Kingdom. There, Rick meets with their leader King Ezekiel (Khary Payton), who decides not to fight. Rick and the group are able to procure wired explosives left by the Saviors. Later, Rick and the others are surrounded by a new junkyard group. In "New Best Friends", Rick negotiates with the leader Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), and she agrees on one-third of supplies once the war is over, but they need a large quantity of guns to make a formal alliance. In "Say Yes", Rick and Michonne look for guns. They bond, have sex, and have a deep conversation about whether he will die in the war, asking her to take over if he does. Jadis is dissatisfied with their offering, but Rick manages to convince her to let them keep some of the guns while they find more.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In "Something They Need", Tara leads Rick to Oceanside where they have guns, having kept it a secret. They huddle the community at gunpoint, but promise they will return them later. They fail to convince Oceanside to fight, however. In "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life", Negan's former lieutenant Dwight (Austin Amelio) offers to help Rick and delays Negan's imminent arrival, while Rick brings Jadis and the Scavengers to Alexandria to prepare for an attack. It backfires when it is revealed Jadis was already working with Negan. Negan threatens to kill Sasha, and Rick asks to see her. Sasha, having committed suicide to prevent herself from being used as bait, reanimates as a walker and attacks Negan, buying the Alexandrians a chance to open fire against the Scavengers and Saviors. Rick is shot by Jadis after he tries to re-negotiate, and later soldiers from the Kingdom and the Hilltop arrive to save the day. This prompts Negan to retreat. The episode and season ends with Rick, Maggie and Ezekiel uniting the three communities together.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season premiere, "Mercy", Rick stands before the assembled forces of the Kingdom, Alexandria and the Hilltop and declares the world to be theirs. He leads a large convoy of survivors with armored vehicles to the Sanctuary to confront the Saviors. Rick offers the Saviors the chance to surrender, but states that Negan has to die. The group then opens fire, ravaging the Sanctuary before a massive herd of walkers (led by Daryl) arrives. Rick uses an explosive-laden RV to blow open the gates. As walkers flood into the Sanctuary, Rick spots Negan taking cover and attempts to shoot him, but Gabriel stops him.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the episode "The Damned", Rick and Daryl lead a group of survivors to take control of a Savior compound with the added goal of capturing a stash of guns housed inside. Rick finds where he believes them to be housed, but only gains access after killing a Savior in a brutal fight. He opens the door to find a nursery with a baby inside, forcing Rick to question the morality of his plan. This is compounded when he is confronted by former Atlanta survivor Morales (Juan Pareja), now a Savior, who informs him that reinforcements are on the way. "Monsters" opens with Rick talking to Morales, trying to convince him of Negan's evil to no effect. Their conversation is cut short when Daryl kills Morales from behind, despite Rick's protests. He is further disturbed when Daryl executes a Savior who Rick had promised to let go in exchange for information.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In "Some Guy", Rick and Daryl chase two Saviors while they make a hasty pursuit with weapons on their backs. One of the Saviors begins to shoot at them, forcing Daryl to deviate from the road. Rick stays in his way. One of the Saviors, Iago, evades the walkers on the road, pulling the other Savior's target and causing him to stumble. When he regains his position and continues shooting at the other truck, Rick veers off to the side, allowing Daryl to open fire on the Savior. Rick manages to reach Iago's truck and jumps on board, stabs Iago in the stomach and pushes him out of the vehicle before crashing into the side of the road. He and Daryl then find a cache of 50-calibre machine guns.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In "The Big Scary U", Rick and Daryl learn from a dying Iago that everyone in the Kingdom died except Ezekiel, Jerry and Carol. They enter into a discussion about what to do with the weapons; Daryl believes that they should use them against the Saviors, while Rick sees a more humane solution. The argument turns into a fist fight, which inadvertently results in a dynamite bag thrown at the truck, destroying it along with the weapons. Daryl heads back to Alexandria, and a resentful Rick heads off to another course.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In "The King, the Widow, and Rick", Rick, Maggie and Carol organize the next assault on the Saviors. Rick travels to the Scavenger base to meet Jadis, and offers to ally with them against the Saviors. Jadis refuses, however, and takes Rick captive. In the episode "Time for After", Rick tries to negotiate his release with Jadis, but she refuses again, and threatens to feed him to a walker. Rick manages to overpower Jadis, and she lets him go. Rick then makes a deal to allow the scavengers to share the Saviors' supplies if they join him. Jadis demands to see the situation in the Sanctuary before she or her people commit to Rick's plan. Rick guides them to the outer perimeter of the enclosure; upon entering, Rick finds one of his snipers dead, being devoured by walkers. Unable to eliminate the other snipers, Rick climbs a tower and watches the area from a higher ground, and escapes.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the mid-season finale, "How It's Gotta Be", Rick marches with the Scavengers to the Sanctuary, but they are ambushed and the Scavengers flee, leaving Rick behind. Carol and Jerry rescue him, and the three decide to separate. Later in the night, Rick finds that the Saviors have set Alexandria on fire, which forces him to again confront Negan. After a brief struggle, Rick escapes with Michonne into the sewers, where the rest of their people are hiding, along with Siddiq, who was rescued by Carl. Rick then discovers, to his horror, that Carl has been bitten by a walker.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the mid-season premiere, "Honor", Rick and Michonne organize an escape plan with the others, while the Saviors bomb Alexandria. As he lays dying, Carl gives Rick a letter in which he urges his father to make peace with Negan. Unable to watch his son die, a devastated Rick turns away as Carl commits suicide. As Rick mourns Carl's death, he contemplates making his son's vision of a peaceful future a reality.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the season finale, "Wrath", Rick's group and the Saviors face off for a final battle. Rick cuts Negan's throat, but, inspired by Carl's last wishes, allows him to live, imprisoning him instead.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Rick begins the season as the de facto leader of all of the communities, with Maggie in charge of Hilltop, Daryl in charge of the Saviors, and Ezekiel in charge of the Kingdom. Rick strives for prosperity and cooperation among the communities, assuring the future that Carl had wished for. However, his choice to spare Negan has cost him his relationship with Maggie and Daryl, who both want Negan dead. Tensions rise between the groups and a small insurrection occurs, led by a small group of Saviors who oppose Rick's rule. This causes an even further rift between the communities, and ideologies clash as Maggie and Daryl begin to oppose Rick's leadership and vision of cooperation.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Rick learns that Maggie is going to kill Negan, and rides with Daryl to try and stop her; however, this results in a fight between the two in which they fall into a chasm, and have to fight their way out to avoid being swarmed by two incoming herds of walkers. Rick tries to salvage the bridge between the two communities, he is thrown from his horse and impaled on a rebar pipe. Crying in agony, Rick is left on the side of the road while he passes out, as hundreds of walkers approach him.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Seriously injured, Rick manages to free himself from the rebar and leads the herd away using his horse, haunted by hallucinations of his dead friends. Finding the camp overrun, Rick leads the massive combined herd onto the bridge, which he believes would collapse under the weight of the herd, but it holds. With his friends desperately trying to save him, Rick shoots fallen dynamite, blowing the bridge up and apparently killing himself in the process. Unknown to anyone else, however, Rick survives the explosion and is found by Anne (Jadis) on the riverbank. Anne convinces her allies (the CRM) that are in the helicopter to take Rick to safety and treat his injuries. Rick later awakens on the helicopter with Anne, who assures him that he is being taken to a safe place.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Six years after Rick's apparent death, Michonne has taken over Alexandria and still visits the destroyed bridge where Rick was last seen alive and talks to him. A nine-year old Judith has inherited Rick's revolver and sheriff's hat, but admits that she is starting to forget both Rick and Carl's voices. Michonne has also given birth to Rick's son, R.J. Grimes, also known as Rick Grimes Jr.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Years after Rick's disappearance, Michonne finds his boots on Bloodsworth Island while helping out a survivor named Virgil. Virgil reveals that the boots washed up on the island in an abandoned boat and Michonne finds an old iPhone with Rick's name on it and a drawing of herself and Judith scratched into the phone. Realizing that Rick is still alive out there somewhere, Michonne decides to depart the communities in order to search for him, finding a possible clue in the boat's logs to his location.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the series finale, Judith reveals to Daryl and Carol the truth about Michonne's departure in search of Rick who is still alive. A year later, Daryl departs to "be out there" and also locate his friends.


title: Rick Grimes

text: On Bloodsworth Island, Rick, wearing an Alliance of the Three jacket, writes a message to Michonne that he throws into the water. However, moments later, he is found by a CRM helicopter and tosses his belongings aboard the boat where they would eventually be found by Virgil and Michonne. The pilot, referring to Rick as Consignee Grimes, orders Rick to surrender, telling him that there's no escape for the living. Enraged, Rick drives a kill stick through the head of a walker buried in the mud and reluctantly surrenders.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Rick also appears in the fourth season premiere of the companion series "Fear the Walking Dead" with his appearance chronologically following the events of "The Walking Dead" season 8 finale. In the episode, Rick tries to convince Morgan Jones to come back with him before Morgan ultimately decides to go off on his own.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Jadis reappears in season 2 of "", although there is no sign of Rick. Six years have passed since their departure from Virginia and the only possible clue that Jadis gives to Rick's current fate is her mentioning to Huck that she had traded "something very valuable" to the CRM in order to get her new life.


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the series finale, Jadis confirms to Huck that she had in fact traded Rick for her new life in the CRM. However, Jadis reveals that she had lied about Rick being a "B" and that he was really an "A." Jadis knew that if she had told the CRM that Rick was an "A," he would've ended up as one of the CRM's test subjects and Jadis owed Rick enough to spare him from such a terrible fate.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Rick Grimes is portrayed by Andrew Lincoln, who was cast as part of the television adaptation in April 2010. Prior to attaining the role, Lincoln had no prior knowledge of the comic book series. "I didn't even get a script the first time —I got sides, because it was so top-secret," he stated. "I was really intrigued and put myself on tape. They got back very quickly from Hollywood and gave me the script." Lincoln approached a bookstore (Mega City Comics) in the London Borough of Camden, where the owner introduced him to the comics. "That's when I went to a comic-book store in Camden, and said 'Have you heard of this comic book?'. The owner showed me this shrine they had to the comic, and said 'This is our most popular and successful comic, and in my opinion, one of the greatest graphic novels of the last ten years'. That's when I got into it."


title: Rick Grimes

text: In preparation for the role, Lincoln sought inspiration from the American drama series "Breaking Bad", as well as western film "High Noon" (1952). Since he felt that "The Walking Dead" emulated western cinematic works, Lincoln found "High Noon" to be very useful in projecting a country-like character for Rick. The performance of Gary Cooper and the moral structure of his character was also cited as an influence; "He's a divided man, between his responsibilities and his marriage. He's not like the Clint Eastwood figure, the loner. It's more complicated than that. He's got a softer heart, so that was definitely an inspiration for me as well." Lincoln avouched that it was difficult to perfect a southern American accent. "I worked really hard on the accent," he stated. "I suppose if you're asked by one of the great channels in America to lead their show, you want to start off getting that right. I worked hard on not just the accent, but also on being American and getting into the feel of that." He traveled to Atlanta three weeks before production of the first season began, and worked with a dialect coach while there. Although weapon training was required, Lincoln had previous experience with weaponry training in the British six-part television series "Strike Back" (2010).


title: Rick Grimes

text: Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd initially didn't expect Lincoln to portray Grimes. Upon hearing the announcement, Writer Robert Kirkman felt that Lincoln was an "amazing find" and added that he accurately embodied the characteristics of Rick. "Writing Rick Grimes month after month in the comic series, I had no idea he was an actual living, breathing human being, and yet, here he is. I couldn't be more thrilled with how this show is coming together." Although he was initially shocked upon hearing of the concept of "The Walking Dead", Lincoln thought that the script for "Days Gone Bye" was well written. He stated: "I read it and thought it was well written, and I put myself on tape just for one scene. I didn't know who was involved at this point." The following day, Lincoln's agent called him about the development of the pilot, to which Lincoln called it "kind of like a dream list".


title: Rick Grimes

text: Lincoln announced his plan to leave the show in mid-2018; he cited that due to spending at least half a year for filming in America while his family was in England, he felt it was time to end his role to spend more time with his children. Lincoln is slated to portray Grimes for six episodes of the ninth season prior to his departure. Lincoln said he had been talking as early as the show's fourth season about leaving the show with showrunner Scott M. Gimple, and had initially made plans to leave after season 8's conclusion. However, during the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con event, taking place during the middle of season 8's production, Lincoln realized he could not leave his fellow cast members at that point, and decided to wait and leave the next season, giving the showrunners enough screentime to set up Rick's departure from the show appropriately.


title: Rick Grimes

text: Rick Grimes has been described as a man that emphasizes moral standards. Lincoln summated: "His intentions are good, though his decisions may be bad many times. He's complicated and flawed, which I find fascinating because it makes him human. He sort of erodes over time because of the world he lives, and there's nothing more satisfying than playing a character that changes irrevocably, so I embrace all of that." Lincoln added that Rick was a somewhat inflexible leader, which he opined could potentially put Grimes' group in danger. Despite these assertions, he affirmed that the complexities have molded him into a decisive and peculiar character. "I also think Rick's inflexibility is both a part of his character and a reaction to what's happening around him. This situation [...] has brought qualities out in people that are both good and horrible. And certainly, as I was playing him, I felt Rick [consistently] needed to have a mission, otherwise he was just stagnating. You see this in several characters. They have to keep moving. Without a horizon, they flounder. And it was a big call for Rick to go to the CDC [...] in the fifth episode, but he was looking long-term. I find that admirable, because he's looking to the future for his family, for a cure, and for sanctity."


title: Rick Grimes

text: In both media, Rick adopts a more dark and assertive nature as the story progresses. In the comic, he is faced with dealing against a murderous sociopath that claims the life of two group members, as well as an attempted suicide indirectly provoked by his close and trusted friend. Perhaps the most significant moment, he is eventually put under physical and mental torture by The Governor as a result of vulnerability and mistaken trust, ultimately causing him to become crippled and causing the death of many within the group, including his wife and newborn child. The first hand witnessing of the savageness around him leads him to gradually adapt a more primal mindset, becoming less affected by violence and death (at times brutally murdering/mutilating people). Similarly, his perspective becomes increasingly deluded, as his decreased trust in people and decreased tolerance level leads him to take no issue in risking the life of an innocent. This is specifically shown as Rick struggles when eventually being given the chance to return to normalcy. He is however shown to be very protective of those who have suffered alongside him and most protective of his son, Carl, which leads to him being caring and considerate to them one moment and cold and detached the next. Later in the series, after his wife's death and his son suffering from amnesia after being shot, his long friend Andrea helps him see a brighter future for the community they reside in called Alexandria and Rick begins to embrace his leadership position, as well as start a relationship with her. He then begins a trading network with other communities, which is threatened by the tyrannical Negan who is eventually subdued and imprisoned. He continues to grow and expand his community, and create safety perimeters around Washington, D.C. to travel to other communities.


title: Rick Grimes

text: As the second season of "The Walking Dead" progressed, Kirkman discerned that the sophomore season revolved around Rick's ability to emerge as a credible leader, proving to the group that he can adequately protect everyone in the group. He continued: "This is one more thing emerging where you see that this is a guy who can gun down people when they're a threat and can definitely handle himself when it comes to walkers but also cares about people. He's going to retain some of that humanity, and that's very important for these characters. It makes Rick stand head and shoulders above other people, like Shane, in this world." The gradual change is largely attributed to the death of Sophia Peletier, whom he shot after she had turned into a walker in "Pretty Much Dead Already". These characteristics become more prominent in "Nebraska", and again in "18 Miles Out". Robert Kirkman felt that "Nebraska" demonstrated that Rick was not delirious, as Shane accused him of being.


title: Rick Grimes

text: The end of this episode proves to Rick that that's not the case. This entire season has been leading up to the moment where he shot those two men. Shane has been beating it into his head that he isn't fit for this world and needs to be a harder man and be able to make the hard decisions. Over the last two episodes, we've seen Rick be the one that has to step up and shoot Sophia when no one else can. We've seen him in the blink of an eye take out two guys who are a clear threat to him and everyone else that's with him. This is really the beginning of Rick emerging as a clear leader and answering that thing that Shane's been saying all this time.


title: Rick Grimes

text: After the death of his wife in the television series, Rick faces a downward spiral to the point of relinquishing his leadership position in the prison community by the end of the third season. At the beginning of the fourth season, Lincoln described Rick as a man "repressing his brutality for the sake of his son". However, at the end of the fourth season after losing the prison and suffering more losses, he described Rick as "a man accepting brutality for the sake of his son", following closely to the comic in which he bites the throat of a marauder who threatens to assassinate him and assault his son. He further assessed that "Rick is a man who has made peace with the brutality within him that's inherent in him along with the moral sense that is just as valid a part of him. Rick is psychologically the strongest he's ever been. Because he's realized that the only way to stay alive – to keep his son alive in this new world – is by actively embracing all sides of his personality including darkness, fury and rage."


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the fifth season, Lincoln asserted that "Rick is [...] at the most complete place he’s been ever since the apocalypse started. He’s a man who doesn’t doubt himself anymore, and he’s accepted his brutality as much as his humanity. So I think he’s in an incredibly powerful and dangerous place." He also described him as being a leader once again, who is much more uncompromising as he "[drags] a lot of [the group] into a place that is darker, more brutal." "Entertainment Weekly" assessed that "This is the Rick viewers most assuredly need after watching him mope around on-and-off for two seasons after having every bad thing in the world happen to him. And it’s the Rick that the rest of the survivors need as well if they are going to continue to keep on keeping on."


title: Rick Grimes

text: Rick Grimes was named the 26th Top Comic Book Hero by "IGN", and Lincoln's portrayal of Rick has been generally well received by television commentators and audiences. He was nominated for a Saturn Award in the category for Best Actor in Television. IGN's Eric Goldman stated that Lincoln fit into character very well; "For much of the pilot, he's on his own and exudes a lot of believable, shocked emotion, as Rick tries to process what he is seeing." Although he cited that his accent was "dodgy" in the pilot installment, Leonard Pierce of "The A.V. Club" observed that Lincoln became more relaxed as the series progressed. "His body language and expression here is totally different now than when we saw him before. He's a fast learner."


title: Rick Grimes

text: As the second season commenced, critics became keen to the character development of Grimes in several episodes, particularly in "Nebraska." Reviewing the episode, "Los Angeles Times" Gina McIntyre felt that Rick emulated "Justified" character Raylan Givens, while Zach Handlen of "The A.V. Club" observed that Rick was morphing into "something of a badass." Handlen added that it marked a turning point for Grimes, which established his position "as a guy who can do what needs to be done." Scott Meslow of "The Atlantic" commented that "there's the surprisingly swift, violent dénouement, when Rick guns down Dave and Tony before they can do the same to him. It's a necessary action, given the circumstances, but it also rings in an honest-to-god character change for our hero, who, having dispatched zombie Sophia, seems to have developed a new recognition of the ruthlessness and self-centeredness it may take to survive in this new world order."


title: Rick Grimes

text: The growing tensions between Rick and Shane Walsh have been well received by television critics. In a review for "Bloodletting", Joe Oesterle of Mania.com commended the performances of Lincoln and Bernthal. Oesterle wrote, "Andrew Lincoln and Jon Bernthal [...] gave a fine bit of acting, and I found it interesting how the character Rick started looking and walking a little bit zombish after giving blood. The scenes between the two men were moving, and if you listened close you could decipher the main differences between these two cowboy cops. Rick is bound and determined to get back to his wife and let her know their son is in mortal danger, without ever doubting his own ability to successfully complete the mission, while Shane on the other hand is not quite as automatically selfless and heroic."


title: Rick Grimes

text: Several critics lauded Grimes' interactions with Walsh in "18 Miles Out." Writing for CNN, Henry Hanks said that "Rick made it clear to Shane that he had to respect his rules from now on." Alex Crumb of "The Faster Times" evaluated their physical confrontation as "wholly satisfying", while "Entertainment Weekly" writer Darren Franich appreciated the fight scene involving Grimes and Walsh; "The Shane/Rick fight was great, a brilliantly extended scuffle that started out with an air of boys-will-be-boys pettiness but quickly escalated into something genuinely homicidal." Berriman of "SFX" summated: "It's shocking when Shane hurls a wrench at Rick’s head, but even more shocking that Rick is prepared to cut and run and leave him for dead. Rick's change of heart when he looks down at the two dead walkers on the floor and is reminded of the friendship between himself and his former partner is a beautifully played moment, which speaks volumes without a single line of dialogue being uttered. The fact that, come the end, he's willing to trust Shane again after all that has gone on between them is genuinely touching."


title: Rick Grimes

text: By the start of season three, Rick's character arc developed him into a more world-weary, cynical, ruthless, and hardened person. Erik Kain of "Forbes" said that Rick started out as "the voice of reason, a calm presence, and an earnest leader" in the first two seasons, but had developed into an "anti-hero" by season three. Tom Ward of "Esquire" noted that Rick was almost a completely different man by the end of the fifth season: "He may resemble the clean-cut law enforcer from the first season, but inside, 'stuff' and 'things' have changed the man with the highest zombie kill count in history...Has Rick become the show's villain? After Rick and his group slaughtered the members of Terminus, Andrew Lincoln voiced that "[i]n Seasons 1, 2, and 3, and half of 4, Rick was a man either restraining or denying a brutal part of his personality, in order that his children grow up and, hopefully, have a father that was morally sound. A father who could give a good value system to his children. The difference in [Season five] is that there is no safe haven."


title: Rick Grimes

text: In the seventh season, Zack Handlen for "The A.V. Club" was critical of the morality of Rick and Tara raiding Oceanside. He assessed, "...we are forcibly reminded of "The Walking Dead"s greatest weakness: Rick Must Always Be Right (except when he's trying to fight against his destiny as a leader). The people of Oceanside almost immediately lose what little distinctive identity they once had, falling in line like they were just waiting for some bearded dude to show up and start ordering them around, and there's no acknowledgement of the weirdness of this, of how close Rick's tactics are to the very man he's trying to destroy".


title: Rick Grimes

text: Noel Murray of "Rolling Stone" ranked Rick Grimes 5th in a list of 30 best "Walking Dead" characters, saying, "while former sheriff Rick Grimes has had plenty of stretches where he's been overwhelmed by his emotions or has made outright idiotic decisions, he's ultimately remained the compelling, charismatic character that he was when we first met him. He represents The Walking Dead's conflicted core, the conduit that writers use to explore both the hard choices a successful survivalist has to make and what it costs people when they become unfazed by death."


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Richard Tyler Blevins (born June 5, 1991), better known as Ninja, is an American Twitch streamer, YouTuber and professional gamer. Blevins began streaming through participating in several esports teams in competitive play for "Halo 3", and gradually picked up fame when he first started playing "Fortnite Battle Royale" in late 2017. Blevins's rise among mainstream media began in March 2018 when he played "Fortnite" together with Drake, Travis Scott and JuJu Smith-Schuster on stream, breaking a peak viewer count record on Twitch. Blevins has over 18 million followers on his Twitch channel, making it the most-followed Twitch channel


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Richard Tyler Blevins was born on June 5, 1991, and is of Welsh descent. Though born in the Detroit area, he moved with his family to the Chicago suburbs when he was an infant. He attended Grayslake Central High School in Grayslake, Illinois, where he played soccer. Upon graduation, he decided to play video games professionally, entering tournaments, joining professional organizations, and live streaming his games.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins began playing "Halo 3" professionally in 2009. He played for various organizations including Cloud9, Renegades, Team Liquid, and most recently, Luminosity Gaming. Blevins became a streamer in 2011. He began playing "H1Z1", then moved to "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds". He joined Luminosity Gaming in 2017 first as a "Halo" player, then to "H1Z1", later moving to "PUBG", where he won the "PUBG" Gamescom Invitational Squads classification in August 2017.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins began streaming the newly released "Fortnite Battle Royale" shortly after the "PUBG" Gamescom Invitational. His viewership began to grow, which coincided with the game's growth in popularity over the late 2017/early 2018 period. His followers on Twitch had grown from 500,000 in September 2017 to over 2 million by March 2018.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In March 2018, Blevins became the first Twitch streamer to surpass 3 million followers on the platform. Later that month, he set the record for the largest concurrent audience on an individual stream (outside of tournament events), 635,000, while playing "Fortnite" with Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith-Schuster. This stream inspired Epic Games, the developers behind "Fortnite", to host a charitable pro-am event featuring popular streamers like Blevins paired with famous celebrities in "Fortnite" at E3 2018 in June of that year; Blevins paired with electronic musician Marshmello and won the event. In April 2018, he broke his own viewing record during his event "Ninja Vegas 2018", where he accumulated an audience of about 667,000 live viewers.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins partnered with Red Bull Esports in June 2018, and held a special "Fortnite" event, the Red Bull Rise Till Dawn in Chicago on July 21, 2018, where players could challenge him. In April 2019, Red Bull released a limited-edition Red Bull can featuring an image of Blevins.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins' rise in popularity on Twitch is considered to be synergistically tied to the success of "Fortnite Battle Royale". In December 2018, Blevins estimated he had made close to in 2018, while Epic Games reported they had earned over in revenue in the year, primarily due to "Fortnite". He became the first PC player to surpass 5,000 "Fortnite" wins that same month. To acknowledge Blevins' importance to "Fortnite"s success, Epic added a Ninja-based cosmetic outfit to the game in January 2020 as the first part of an "Icon Series" for other real-life personalities associated with "Fortnite".


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Reuters reported that Blevins had been paid by Electronic Arts to promote "Apex Legends", a competing battle royale game to "Fortnite", for playing the game on his Twitch stream and promoting the title through social media account during "Apex" release in February 2019.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: On August 1, 2019, Blevins left Twitch to stream exclusively on Microsoft's Mixer platform. His wife and manager Jessica told "The Verge" that the contract with Twitch had limited the ability for Ninja to grow his brand outside of video gaming, and that because of the state of Twitch's community, "it really seemed like he was kind of losing himself and his love for streaming."


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In addition to a large number of subscribers on Twitch and Mixer, Blevins has over 24 million subscribers on YouTube as of April 2021. At the time, he was earning over $500,000 per month from streaming "Fortnite" and credits the game's free-to-play business model as a growth factor.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Due to the shutdown of Mixer in July 2020, Blevins was released from his exclusivity deal, enabling him to stream on other platforms. On September 10, 2020, Blevins revealed that he would return to streaming on Twitch after signing an exclusive multiyear deal and streamed on the platform the same day.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: On September 1, 2022, exactly two years after re-signing to Twitch, Blevins changed his name on his social media profiles, such as his Twitter and YouTube, to "User Not Found" with background graphics stating "Time Out". He simultaneously tweeted "I just need a break...I don't know when I will be back, or where". On September 8, 2022, Blevins announced his return to streaming, stating that he would be streaming simultaneously across multiple platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins and his family were featured in several episodes of the television game show "Family Feud" in 2015. In an episode aired August 2019, after he had achieved his fame, his family returned as contestants on "Celebrity Family Feud".


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In September 2018, Blevins became the first professional esports player to be featured on the cover of "ESPN The Magazine", marking a breakthrough into mainstream sports fame.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins worked with the record label Astralwerks in October 2018 to compile an album titled "Ninjawerks: Vol. 1" featuring original songs by electronic music acts. The album was released on December 14, 2018.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins was one of several Internet celebrities featured in "". Blevins appeared briefly during the NFL's "The 100-Year Game" ad alongside numerous several professional football players that aired during Super Bowl LIII in 2019. He was the only participant in the commercial with no ties whatsoever to football in any form.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins has released several books with publishing house Random House. Random House imprint, Clarkson Potter, published "Get Good: My Ultimate Guide to Gaming" on August 20, 2019.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: Blevins participated in the second season of the Fox reality music competition "The Masked Singer" as "Ice Cream". He was voted out after his first performance to Devo's "Whip It" and Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" and thus forced to unmasked. In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Blevins said that he accepted an invitation to participate since his wife was a fan of the show.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In 2022, Blevins partnered with MasterClass to create a 30-day curriculum in which Blevins provides advice on how to become a successful streamer.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In a fundraising charity stream held in February 2018, Blevins raised over $110,000 to be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. During the first "Fortnite Battle Royale" Esports event in April 2018, Blevins gave away nearly $50,000 in prize money, with $2,500 of that going to the Alzheimer's Association. Later in April, he participated in the #Clips4Kids charity event with fellow streamers DrLupo and TimTheTatman that raised over $340,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. At E3 2018, Blevins and Marshmello won the Fortnite Pro-Am event which resulted in the donation of the $1 million prize to a charity of their choice.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In December 2016, Blevins released the address of a donor as retribution for having a racist screen name and donation message. This act, which is referred to as "doxing", is against the Twitch rules, which states they can result in an "indefinite suspension". Blevins was reported for this act, but only received a 48-hour suspension, which some believed was a result of Blevins' large audience on the platform. Blevins later tweeted that he deserved the punishment.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In March 2018, while in a stream with Nadeshot, Blevins improvised the word "nigga" while rapping to Logic's "44 More", a song in which the word was never actually said. This sparked controversy within his watching community and the general public. He later apologized for any offense caused and stated that he did not intend to say the word, instead attributing his use of the word to being "tongue-tied".


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In August 2018, Blevins stated that he does not stream with female gamers out of respect for his wife and to avoid the rumors that such streaming could create. He received mixed reactions; some said that he should set an example and not make it more difficult for female streamers to rise to prominence, while others supported his stance, claiming that he should be allowed to do what he wants to protect his marriage. In response to his critics, Blevins has since reaffirmed his support for gender equality and restated his commitment to his marriage, also mentioning some prominent female streamers by name. He noted that women are welcome to play with him in a group or at events as he claims such situations allow him to "control the narrative more, without stupid drama and rumors flooding into our lives."


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In October 2018, Blevins reported a player for "having a higher ping" than him. This led to a player claiming on November 16, 2018, that they had been banned as a result of the report, which Epic Games denied. Both of these incidents caused backlash against Blevins on social media.


title: Ninja (gamer)

text: In November 2018, Blevins received criticism for falsely reporting IcyFive, a "Fortnite" player, for stream sniping. After Blevins was eliminated by IcyFive, Blevins' teammate, DrLupo, told him to watch for an "emote", which IcyFive did perform. Blevins took this as proof that IcyFive was stream sniping and quickly reported the player. After reporting IcyFive, Blevins stated that he would "go out of his way" to ensure IcyFive got banned and told IcyFive that he would not report him if he left the game immediately, despite already having reported him. As IcyFive was not viewing the stream, he did not do so. Blevins assumed IcyFive was ignoring him and took out his phone in what appeared to be an attempt at directly contacting Epic Games. IcyFive claimed that he did not stream snipe Blevins and uploaded a video as proof. DrLupo later stated that he did not believe IcyFive stream sniped Blevins, mentioning that using an emote was a regular reaction to an increase in spectator count after elimination, and also stated that he did not condone Blevins' actions, comparing them to a rant. Blevins later apologized to IcyFive on Twitter but also accused the player of "playing the victim" and "milking" the incident, calling him "naive" for assuming players would be banned solely on his word.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and most abundant families of materials, existing as a compound of several minerals and as a synthetic product. Notable examples include fused quartz, fumed silica, silica gel, opal and aerogels. It is used in structural materials, microelectronics (as an electrical insulator), and as components in the food and pharmaceutical industries.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: In the majority of silicates, the silicon atom shows tetrahedral coordination, with four oxygen atoms surrounding a central Si atom (see 3-D Unit Cell). Thus, SiO forms 3-dimensional network solids in which each silicon atom is covalently bonded in a tetrahedral manner to 4 oxygen atoms. In contrast, CO is a linear molecule. The starkly different structures of the dioxides of carbon and silicon are a manifestation of the double bond rule.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: SiO has several distinct crystalline forms, but they almost always have the same local structure around Si and O. In α-quartz the Si–O bond length is 161 pm, whereas in α-tridymite it is in the range 154–171 pm. The Si–O–Si angle also varies between a low value of 140° in α-tridymite, up to 180° in β-tridymite. In α-quartz, the Si–O–Si angle is 144°.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Alpha quartz is the most stable form of solid SiO at room temperature. The high-temperature minerals, cristobalite and tridymite, have both lower densities and indices of refraction than quartz. The transformation from α-quartz to beta-quartz takes place abruptly at 573 °C. Since the transformation is accompanied by a significant change in volume, it can easily induce fracturing of ceramics or rocks passing through this temperature limit. The high-pressure minerals, seifertite, stishovite, and coesite, though, have higher densities and indices of refraction than quartz. Stishovite has a rutile-like structure where silicon is 6-coordinate. The density of stishovite is 4.287 g/cm, which compares to α-quartz, the densest of the low-pressure forms, which has a density of 2.648 g/cm. The difference in density can be ascribed to the increase in coordination as the six shortest Si–O bond lengths in stishovite (four Si–O bond lengths of 176 pm and two others of 181 pm) are greater than the Si–O bond length (161 pm) in α-quartz.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The change in the coordination increases the ionicity of the Si–O bond. More importantly, any deviations from these standard parameters constitute microstructural differences or variations, which represent an approach to an amorphous, vitreous, or glassy solid.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Faujasite silica, another polymorph, is obtained by dealumination of a low-sodium, ultra-stable Y zeolite with combined acid and thermal treatment. The resulting product contains over 99% silica, and has high crystallinity and specific surface area (over 800 m/g). Faujasite-silica has very high thermal and acid stability. For example, it maintains a high degree of long-range molecular order or crystallinity even after boiling in concentrated hydrochloric acid.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Molten silica exhibits several peculiar physical characteristics that are similar to those observed in liquid water: negative temperature expansion, density maximum at temperatures ~5000 °C, and a heat capacity minimum. Its density decreases from 2.08 g/cm at 1950 °C to 2.03 g/cm at 2200 °C.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The molecular SiO has a linear structure like . It has been produced by combining silicon monoxide (SiO) with oxygen in an argon matrix.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The dimeric silicon dioxide, (SiO) has been obtained by reacting O with matrix isolated dimeric silicon monoxide, (SiO). In dimeric silicon dioxide there are two oxygen atoms bridging between the silicon atoms with an Si–O–Si angle of 94° and bond length of 164.6 pm and the terminal Si–O bond length is 150.2 pm. The Si–O bond length is 148.3 pm, which compares with the length of 161 pm in α-quartz. The bond energy is estimated at 621.7 kJ/mol.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: is most commonly found in nature as quartz, which comprises more than 10% by mass of the Earth's crust. Quartz is the only polymorph of silica stable at the Earth's surface. Metastable occurrences of the high-pressure forms coesite and stishovite have been found around impact structures and associated with eclogites formed during ultra-high-pressure metamorphism. The high-temperature forms of tridymite and cristobalite are known from silica-rich volcanic rocks. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Even though it is poorly soluble, silica occurs in many plants such as rice. Plant materials with high silica phytolith content appear to be of importance to grazing animals, from chewing insects to ungulates. Silica accelerates tooth wear, and high levels of silica in plants frequently eaten by herbivores may have developed as a defense mechanism against predation.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silica is also the primary component of rice husk ash, which is used, for example, in filtration and as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in cement and concrete manufacturing.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: For well over a billion years, silicification in and by cells has been common in the biological world. In the modern world, it occurs in bacteria, single-celled organisms, plants, and animals (invertebrates and vertebrates).


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Crystalline minerals formed in the physiological environment often show exceptional physical properties (e.g., strength, hardness, fracture toughness) and tend to form hierarchical structures that exhibit microstructural order over a range of scales. The minerals are crystallized from an environment that is undersaturated concerning silicon, and under conditions of neutral pH and low temperature (0–40 °C).


title: Silicon dioxide

text: About 95% of the commercial use of silicon dioxide (sand) occurs in the construction industry, e.g. for the production of concrete (Portland cement concrete).


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Certain deposits of silica sand, with desirable particle size and shape and desirable clay and other mineral content, were important for sand casting of metallic products. The high melting point of silica enables it to be used in such applications such as iron casting; modern sand casting sometimes uses other minerals for other reasons.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Crystalline silica is used in hydraulic fracturing of formations which contain tight oil and shale gas.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silica is the primary ingredient in the production of most glass. As other minerals are melted with silica, the principle of freezing point depression lowers the melting point of the mixture and increases fluidity. The glass transition temperature of pure SiO is about 1475 K. When molten silicon dioxide SiO is rapidly cooled, it does not crystallize, but solidifies as a glass. Because of this, most ceramic glazes have silica as the main ingredient.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The structural geometry of silicon and oxygen in glass is similar to that in quartz and most other crystalline forms of silicon and oxygen with silicon surrounded by regular tetrahedra of oxygen centres. The difference between the glass and crystalline forms arises from the connectivity of the tetrahedral units: Although there is no long-range periodicity in the glassy network ordering remains at length scales well beyond the SiO bond length. One example of this ordering is the preference to form rings of 6-tetrahedra.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The majority of optical fibers for telecommunication are also made from silica. It is a primary raw material for many ceramics such as earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silicon dioxide is used to produce elemental silicon. The process involves carbothermic reduction in an electric arc furnace:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Fumed silica, also known as pyrogenic silica, is prepared by burning SiCl in an oxygen-rich hydrogen flame to produce a "smoke" of SiO.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: It can also be produced by vaporizing quartz sand in a 3000 °C electric arc. Both processes result in microscopic droplets of amorphous silica fused into branched, chainlike, three-dimensional secondary particles which then agglomerate into tertiary particles, a white powder with extremely low bulk density (0.03-.15 g/cm) and thus high surface area. The particles act as a thixotropic thickening agent, or as an anti-caking agent, and can be treated to make them hydrophilic or hydrophobic for either water or organic liquid applications


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silica fume is an ultrafine powder collected as a by-product of the silicon and ferrosilicon alloy production. It consists of amorphous (non-crystalline) spherical particles with an average particle diameter of 150 nm, without the branching of the pyrogenic product. The main use is as pozzolanic material for high performance concrete. Fumed silica nanoparticles can be successfully used as an anti-aging agent in asphalt binders.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silica, either colloidal, precipitated, or pyrogenic fumed, is a common additive in food production. It is used primarily as a flow or anti-caking agent in powdered foods such as spices and non-dairy coffee creamer, or powders to be formed into pharmaceutical tablets. It can adsorb water in hygroscopic applications. Colloidal silica is used as a fining agent for wine, beer, and juice, with the E number reference E551.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Diatomaceous earth, a mined product, has been used in food and cosmetics for centuries. It consists of the silica shells of microscopic diatoms; in a less processed form it was sold as "tooth powder". Manufactured or mined hydrated silica is used as the hard abrasive in toothpaste.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Because silicon dioxide is a native oxide of silicon it is more widely used compared to other semiconductors like Gallium arsenide or Indium phosphide.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silicon dioxide could be grown on a silicon semiconductor surface. Silicon oxide layers could protect silicon surfaces during diffusion processes, and could be used for diffusion masking.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Surface passivation is the process by which a semiconductor surface is rendered inert, and does not change semiconductor properties as a result of interaction with air or other materials in contact with the surface or edge of the crystal. The formation of a thermally grown silicon dioxide layer greatly reduces the concentration of electronic states at the silicon surface. SiO films preserve the electrical characteristics of p–n junctions and prevent these electrical characteristics from deteriorating by the gaseous ambient environment. Silicon oxide layers could be used to electrically stabilize silicon surfaces. The surface passivation process is an important method of semiconductor device fabrication that involves coating a silicon wafer with an insulating layer of silicon oxide so that electricity could reliably penetrate to the conducting silicon below. Growing a layer of silicon dioxide on top of a silicon wafer enables it to overcome the surface states that otherwise prevent electricity from reaching the semiconducting layer.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The process of silicon surface passivation by thermal oxidation (silicon dioxide) is critical to the semiconductor industry. It is commonly used to manufacture metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and silicon integrated circuit chips (with the planar process).


title: Silicon dioxide

text: In its capacity as a refractory, it is useful in fiber form as a high-temperature thermal protection fabric.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silica is used in the extraction of DNA and RNA due to its ability to bind to the nucleic acids under the presence of chaotropes.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Pure silica (silicon dioxide), when cooled as fused quartz into a glass with no true melting point, can be used as a glass fibre for fibreglass.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Quartz is suitable for many purposes, while chemical processing is required to make a purer or otherwise more suitable (e.g. more reactive or fine-grained) product.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Precipitated silica or amorphous silica is produced by the acidification of solutions of sodium silicate. The gelatinous precipitate or silica gel, is first washed and then dehydrated to produce colorless microporous silica. The idealized equation involving a trisilicate and sulfuric acid is:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Approximately one billion kilograms/year (1999) of silica were produced in this manner, mainly for use for polymer composites – tires and shoe soles.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Thin films of silica grow spontaneously on silicon wafers via thermal oxidation, producing a very shallow layer of about 1 nm or 10 Å of so-called native oxide.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Higher temperatures and alternative environments are used to grow well-controlled layers of silicon dioxide on silicon, for example at temperatures between 600 and 1200 °C, using so-called dry oxidation with O


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The native oxide layer is beneficial in microelectronics, where it acts as electric insulator with high chemical stability. It can protect the silicon, store charge, block current, and even act as a controlled pathway to limit current flow.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Many routes to silicon dioxide start with an organosilicon compound, e.g., HMDSO, TEOS. Synthesis of silica is illustrated below using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). Simply heating TEOS at 680–730 °C results in the oxide:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: TEOS undergoes hydrolysis via the so-called sol-gel process. The course of the reaction and nature of the product are affected by catalysts, but the idealized equation is:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Being highly stable, silicon dioxide arises from many methods. Conceptually simple, but of little practical value, combustion of silane gives silicon dioxide. This reaction is analogous to the combustion of methane:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: However the chemical vapor deposition of silicon dioxide onto crystal surface from silane had been used using nitrogen as a carrier gas at 200–500 °C.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Fluorine reacts with silicon dioxide to form SiF and O whereas the other halogen gases (Cl, Br, I) are essentially unreactive.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Most forms of silicon dioxide (except for stishovite, which does not react to any significant degree) are attacked by hydrofluoric acid (HF) to produce hexafluorosilicic acid:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Under normal conditions, silicon does not react with most acids but is dissolved by hydrofluoric acid.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silicon dioxide acts as a Lux–Flood acid, being able to react with bases under certain conditions. As it does not contain any hydrogen, non-hydrated silica cannot directly act as a Brønsted–Lowry acid. While silicon dioxide is only poorly soluble in water at low or neutral pH (typically, 2 × 10 M for quartz up to 10 M for cryptocrystalline chalcedony), strong bases react with glass and easily dissolve it. Therefore, strong bases have to be stored in plastic bottles to avoid jamming the bottle cap, to preserve the integrity of the recipient, and to avoid undesirable contamination by silicate anions.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silicon dioxide dissolves in hot concentrated alkali or fused hydroxide, as described in this idealized equation:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silicon dioxide will neutralise basic metal oxides (e.g. sodium oxide, potassium oxide, lead(II) oxide, zinc oxide, or mixtures of oxides, forming silicates and glasses as the Si-O-Si bonds in silica are broken successively). As an example the reaction of sodium oxide and SiO can produce sodium orthosilicate, sodium silicate, and glasses, dependent on the proportions of reactants:


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Examples of such glasses have commercial significance, e.g. soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, lead glass. In these glasses, silica is termed the network former or lattice former. The reaction is also used in blast furnaces to remove sand impurities in the ore by neutralisation with calcium oxide, forming calcium silicate slag.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silicon dioxide reacts in heated reflux under dinitrogen with ethylene glycol and an alkali metal base to produce highly reactive, pentacoordinate silicates which provide access to a wide variety of new silicon compounds. The silicates are essentially insoluble in all polar solvent except methanol.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: The solubility of silicon dioxide in water strongly depends on its crystalline form and is three-four times higher for silica than quartz; as a function of temperature, it peaks around . This property is used to grow single crystals of quartz in a hydrothermal process where natural quartz is dissolved in superheated water in a pressure vessel that is cooler at the top. Crystals of 0.5–1  kg can be grown for 1–2 months. These crystals are a source of very pure quartz for use in electronic applications. Above the critical temperature of water and a pressure of or higher, water is a supercritical fluid and solubility is once again higher than at lower temperatures.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silica ingested orally is essentially nontoxic, with an of 5000 mg/kg (5 g/kg). A 2008 study following subjects for 15 years found that higher levels of silica in water appeared to decrease the risk of dementia. An increase of 10 mg/day of silica in drinking water was associated with a decreased risk of dementia of 11%.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Inhaling finely divided crystalline silica dust can lead to silicosis, bronchitis, or lung cancer, as the dust becomes lodged in the lungs and continuously irritates the tissue, reducing lung capacities. When fine silica particles are inhaled in large enough quantities (such as through occupational exposure), it increases the risk of systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis compared to expected rates in the general population.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Silica is an occupational hazard for people who do sandblasting or work with products that contain powdered crystalline silica. Amorphous silica, such as fumed silica, may cause irreversible lung damage in some cases but is not associated with the development of silicosis. Children, asthmatics of any age, those with allergies, and the elderly (all of whom have reduced lung capacity) can be affected in less time.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Crystalline silica is an occupational hazard for those working with stone countertops, because the process of cutting and installing the countertops creates large amounts of airborne silica. Crystalline silica used in hydraulic fracturing presents a health hazard to workers.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: In the body, crystalline silica particles do not dissolve over clinically relevant periods. Silica crystals inside the lungs can activate the NLRP3 inflammasome inside macrophages and dendritic cells and thereby result in production of interleukin, a highly pro-inflammatory cytokine in the immune system.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Regulations restricting silica exposure 'with respect to the silicosis hazard' specify that they are concerned only with silica, which is both crystalline and dust-forming.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: In 2013, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration reduced the exposure limit to 50 µg/m of air. Prior to 2013, it had allowed 100 µg/m and in construction workers even 250 µg/m.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: In 2013, OSHA also required "green completion" of fracked wells to reduce exposure to crystalline silica besides restricting the limit of exposure.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: SiO, more so than almost any material, exists in many crystalline forms. These forms are called polymorphs.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: Inhaling finely divided crystalline silica can lead to severe inflammation of the lung tissue, silicosis, bronchitis, lung cancer, and systemic autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Inhalation of amorphous silicon dioxide, in high doses, leads to non-permanent short-term inflammation, where all effects heal.


title: Silicon dioxide

text: This extended list enumerates synonyms for silicon dioxide; all of these values are from a single source; values in the source were presented capitalized.


title: British Isles

text: The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, and over six thousand smaller islands. They have a total area of and a combined population of almost 72 million, and include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland (which covers roughly five-sixths of Ireland), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Channel Islands, off the north coast of France, are normally taken to be part of the British Isles, even though they do not form part of the archipelago.


title: British Isles

text: The oldest rocks are 2.7 billion years old and are found in Ireland, Wales and the northwest of Scotland. During the Silurian period, the north-western regions collided with the south-east, which had been part of a separate continental landmass. The topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis, the highest mountain, rises to only , and Lough Neagh, which is notably larger than other lakes in the island group, covers . The climate is temperate marine, with cool winters and warm summers. The North Atlantic drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures above the global average for the latitude. This led to a landscape that was long dominated by temperate rainforest, although human activity has since cleared the vast majority of forest cover. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation, by 12,000 BC, when Great Britain was still part of a peninsula of the European continent. Ireland was only connected to Great Britain by way of an ice bridge ending by 14,000 BC, and was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 7000 BC with the flooding of Doggerland.


title: British Isles

text: The Hiberni (Ireland), Picts (northern Great Britain) and Britons (southern Great Britain), all speaking Insular Celtic languages, inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Much of Brittonic-occupied Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD 43. The first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century, and eventually they dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by more permanent settlements and political change, particularly in England. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the later Angevin partial conquest of Ireland from 1169 led to the imposition of a new Norman ruling elite across much of Britain and parts of Ireland. By the Late Middle Ages, Great Britain was separated into the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland, while control in Ireland fluxed between Gaelic kingdoms, Hiberno-Norman lords and the English-dominated Lordship of Ireland, soon restricted only to The Pale. The 1603 Union of the Crowns, Acts of Union 1707 and Acts of Union 1800 aimed to consolidate Great Britain and Ireland into a single political unit, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remaining as Crown Dependencies. The expansion of the British Empire and migrations following the Irish Famine and Highland Clearances resulted in the dispersal of some of the islands' population and culture throughout the world, and rapid depopulation of Ireland in the second half of the 19th century. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty (1919–1922), with six counties remaining in the UK as Northern Ireland.


title: British Isles

text: In Ireland, the term "British Isles" is controversial, and there are objections to its usage. The Government of Ireland does not officially recognise the term, and its embassy in London discourages its use. Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has also seen limited use in academia.


title: British Isles

text: The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of seafarers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia. The original records have been lost; however, later writings, e.g. Avienius's "Ora maritima", that quoted from the Massaliote Periplus (6th century BC) and from Pytheas's "On the Ocean" (around 325–320 BC) have survived. In the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has "Prettanikē nēsos", "the British Island", and "Prettanoi", "the Britons". Strabo used Βρεττανική ("Brettanike"), and Marcian of Heraclea, in his "Periplus maris exteri", used αἱ Πρεττανικαί νῆσοι ("the Prettanic Isles") to refer to the islands. Historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί ("Priteni" or "Pretani"). The shift from the "P" of "Pretannia" to the "B" of "Britannia" by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar.


title: British Isles

text: Greco-Egyptian Claudius Ptolemy referred to the larger island as "great Britain" (μεγάλη Βρεττανία "megale Brettania") and to Ireland as "little Britain" (μικρὰ Βρεττανία "mikra Brettania") in his work "Almagest" (147–148 AD). In his later work, "Geography" (c. 150 AD), he gave these islands the names "Alwion", "Iwernia", and "Mona" (the Isle of Man), suggesting these may have been names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing "Almagest". The name "Albion" appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Great Britain, after which "Britain" became the more commonplace name for the island called Great Britain in the English language. However, the cognate 'alba' has given its name to Scotland in most Celtic languages : Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albey in Manx, Albain in Irish and Alban in Cornish and Welsh.


title: British Isles

text: The earliest known use of the phrase "Brytish Iles" in the English language is dated 1577 in a work by John Dee. Today, this name is seen by some as carrying imperialist overtones although it is still commonly used. Other names used to describe the islands include the "Anglo-Celtic Isles", "Atlantic archipelago" (a term coined by the historian J. G. A. Pocock in 1975), "British-Irish Isles","Britain and Ireland", "UK and Ireland", and "British Isles and Ireland". Owing to political and national associations with the word "British", the Government of Ireland does not use the term "British Isles" and in documents drawn up jointly between the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is referred to simply as "these islands". British Isles is still the most widely accepted term for the archipelago.


title: British Isles

text: The British Isles lie at the juncture of several regions with past episodes of tectonic mountain building. These orogenic belts form a complex geology that records a huge and varied span of Earth's history. Of particular note was the Caledonian orogeny during the Ordovician and early Silurian periods, when the craton Baltica collided with the terrane Avalonia to form the mountains and hills in northern Britain and Ireland. Baltica formed roughly the northwestern half of Ireland and Scotland. Further collisions caused the Variscan orogeny in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, forming the hills of Munster, southwest England, and southern Wales. Over the last 500 million years the land that forms the islands has drifted northwest from around 30°S, crossing the equator around 370 million years ago to reach its present northern latitude.


title: British Isles

text: The islands have been shaped by numerous glaciations during the Quaternary Period, the most recent being the Devensian. As this ended, the central Irish Sea was deglaciated and the English Channel flooded, with sea levels rising to current levels some 8,000 years ago, leaving the British Isles in their current form.


title: British Isles

text: There are about 136 permanently inhabited islands in the group, the largest two being Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is to the east and covers . Ireland is to the west and covers . The largest of the other islands are to be found in the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland to the north, Anglesey and the Isle of Man between Great Britain and Ireland, and the Channel Islands near the coast of France. The most densely populated island is Portsea Island, which has an area of 9.5 sq mi (24.5 sq km) but has the third highest population behind Great Britain and Ireland.


title: British Isles

text: The islands are at relatively low altitudes, with central Ireland and southern Great Britain particularly low-lying: the lowest point in the islands is the North Slob in County Wexford, Ireland, with an elevation of . The Scottish Highlands in the northern part of Great Britain are mountainous, with Ben Nevis being the highest point on the islands at . Other mountainous areas include Wales and parts of Ireland, although only seven peaks in these areas reach above . Lakes on the islands are generally not large, although Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is an exception, covering . The largest freshwater body in Great Britain (by area) is Loch Lomond at , and Loch Ness (by volume) whilst Loch Morar is the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles, with a maximum depth of . There are a number of major rivers within the British Isles. The longest is the Shannon in Ireland at . The river Severn at is the longest in Great Britain.


title: British Isles

text: The climate of the British Isles is mild, moist and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes. It is defined as a temperate oceanic climate, or "Cfb" on the Köppen climate classification system, a classification it shares with most of northwest Europe. The North Atlantic Drift ("Gulf Stream"), which flows from the Gulf of Mexico, brings with it significant moisture and raises temperatures above the global average for the islands' latitudes. Most Atlantic depressions pass to the north of the islands; combined with the general westerly circulation and interactions with the landmass, this imposes a general east–west variation in climate. There are four distinct climate patterns: south-east, with cold winters, warm and dry summers; south-west, having mild and very wet winters, warm and wet summers; north-west, generally wet with mild winters and cool summers; and north-east with cold winters, cool summers.


title: British Isles

text: The islands enjoy a mild climate and varied soils, giving rise to a diverse pattern of vegetation. Animal and plant life is similar to that of the northwestern European mainland. There are however, fewer numbers of species, with Ireland having even less. All native flora and fauna in Ireland is made up of species that migrated primarily from Great Britain. The only window when this could have occurred was prior to the melting of the ice bridge between the two islands 14,000 years ago approaching the end of the last ice age.


title: British Isles

text: As with most of Europe, prehistoric Britain and Ireland were covered with forest and swamp. Clearing began around 6000 BC and accelerated in medieval times. Despite this, Britain retained its primeval forests longer than most of Europe due to a small population and later development of trade and industry, and wood shortages were not a problem until the 17th century. By the 18th century, most of Britain's forests were consumed for shipbuilding or manufacturing charcoal and the nation was forced to import lumber from Scandinavia, North America, and the Baltic. Most forest land in Ireland is maintained by state forestation programmes. Almost all land outside urban areas is farmland. However, relatively large areas of forest remain in east and north Scotland and in southeast England. Oak, elm, ash and beech are amongst the most common trees in England. In Scotland, pine and birch are most common. Natural forests in Ireland are mainly oak, ash, wych elm, birch and pine. Beech and lime, though not native to Ireland, are also common there. Farmland hosts a variety of semi-natural vegetation of grasses and flowering plants. Woods, hedgerows, mountain slopes and marshes host heather, wild grasses, gorse and bracken.


title: British Isles

text: Many larger animals, such as wolves, bears and European elk are today extinct. However, some species such as red deer are protected. Other small mammals, such as rabbits, foxes, badgers, hares, hedgehogs, and stoats, are very common and the European beaver has been reintroduced in parts of Scotland. Wild boar have also been reintroduced to parts of southern England, following escapes from boar farms and illegal releases. Many rivers contain otters and grey and common seals are numerous on coasts. There are about 250 bird species regularly recorded in Great Britain, and another 350 that occur with varying degrees of rarity. The most numerous species are wren, robin, house sparrow, woodpigeon, chaffinch and blackbird. Farmland birds are declining in number, except for those kept for game such as pheasant, red-legged partridge, and red grouse. Fish are abundant in the rivers and lakes, in particular salmon, trout, perch and pike. Sea fish include dogfish, cod, sole, pollock and bass, as well as mussels, crab and oysters along the coast. There are more than 21,000 species of insects.


title: British Isles

text: Few species of reptiles or amphibians are found in Great Britain or Ireland. Only three snakes are native to Great Britain: the adder, the barred grass snake and the smooth snake; none are native to Ireland. In general, Great Britain has slightly more variation and native wildlife, with weasels, polecats, wildcats, most shrews, moles, water voles, roe deer and common toads also being absent from Ireland. This pattern is also true for birds and insects. Notable exceptions include the Kerry slug and certain species of woodlouse native to Ireland but not Great Britain.


title: British Isles

text: Domestic animals include the Connemara pony, Shetland pony, English Mastiff, Irish wolfhound and many varieties of cattle and sheep.


title: British Isles

text: England has a generally high population density, with almost 80% of the total population of the islands. Elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland, high density of population is limited to areas around a few large cities. The largest urban area by far is the Greater London Built-up Area with 9 million inhabitants. Other major population centres include the Greater Manchester Built-up Area (2.4 million), West Midlands conurbation (2.4 million) and West Yorkshire Urban Area (1.6 million) in England, Greater Glasgow (1.2 million) in Scotland and Greater Dublin Area (1.9 million) in Ireland.


title: British Isles

text: The population of England rose rapidly during the 19th and 20th centuries, whereas the populations of Scotland and Wales showed little increase during the 20th century; the population of Scotland has remained unchanged since 1951. Ireland for most of its history had much the same population density as Great Britain (about one-third of the total population). However, since the Great Irish Famine, the population of Ireland has fallen to less than one-tenth of the population of the British Isles. The famine caused a century-long population decline, drastically reduced the Irish population and permanently altered the demographic make-up of the British Isles. On a global scale, this disaster led to the creation of an Irish diaspora that numbers fifteen times the current population of the island.


title: British Isles

text: The linguistic heritage of the British Isles is rich, with twelve languages from six groups across four branches of the Indo-European family. The Insular Celtic languages of the Goidelic sub-group (Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic) and the Brittonic sub-group (Cornish, Welsh and Breton, spoken in north-western France) are the only remaining Celtic languages—the last of their continental relations were extinct before the 7th century. The Norman languages of Guernésiais, Jèrriais and Sercquiais spoken in the Channel Islands are similar to French, a language also spoken there. A cant, called Shelta, is spoken by Irish Travellers, often to conceal meaning from those outside the group. However, English, including Scots, is the dominant language, with few monoglots remaining in the other languages of the region. The Norn language of Orkney and Shetland became extinct around 1880.


title: British Isles

text: At the end of the last ice age, what are now the British Isles were joined to the European mainland as a mass of land extending northwest from the modern-day northern coastline of France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Ice covered almost all of what is now Scotland, most of Ireland and Wales, and the hills of northern England. From 14,000 to 10,000 years ago, as the ice melted, sea levels rose to separate Ireland from Great Britain and also to create the Isle of Man. About two to four millennia later, Great Britain became separated from the mainland. Britain probably became repopulated with people before the ice age ended and certainly before it became separated from the mainland. It is likely that Ireland became settled by sea after it had already become an island.


title: British Isles

text: At the time of the Roman Empire, about two thousand years ago, various tribes, which spoke Celtic dialects of the Insular Celtic group, were inhabiting the islands. The Romans expanded their civilisation to control southern Great Britain but were impeded in advancing any further, building Hadrian's Wall to mark the northern frontier of their empire in 122 AD. At that time, Ireland was populated by a people known as Hiberni, the northern third or so of Great Britain by a people known as Picts and the southern two thirds by Britons.


title: British Isles

text: Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century AD. Initially, their arrival seems to have been at the invitation of the Britons as mercenaries to repulse incursions by the Hiberni and Picts. In time, Anglo-Saxon demands on the British became so great that they came to culturally dominate the bulk of southern Great Britain, though recent genetic evidence suggests Britons still formed the bulk of the population. This dominance created what is now England and left culturally British enclaves only in the north of what is now England, in Cornwall and what is now known as Wales. Ireland had been unaffected by the Romans except, significantly, for being Christianised—traditionally by the Romano-Briton, Saint Patrick. As Europe, including Britain, descended into turmoil following the collapse of Roman civilisation, an era known as the Dark Ages, Ireland entered a golden age and responded with missions (first to Great Britain and then to the continent), the founding of monasteries and universities. These were later joined by Anglo-Saxon missions of a similar nature.