#kyanite — Public Fediverse posts

Repost: Kyanite isn't just a fetching blue mineral that documents the experience of sediments under extreme duress.
It's an ore: Virginia alone mined 83,000 tonnes in 2023. Kyanite in furnace insulation transforms to mullite when heated, expanding to reduce porosity and shrinkage.

Virginia Kyanite (photo: J. Wyman) from:
https://energy.virginia.gov/geology/Kyanite.shtml

#MinCup25 #Kyanite #Mullite #Virginia #Appalachians

This is one of the dykes found near Ayer's Cliff, just SE of Magog, Quebec. It's a set of three dykes, one of which has the deep-derived xenoliths. That one dyke (not photogenic) has weathered much faster, perhaps due to a higher carbonate content.
#kyanite #MinCup25 #Quebec #Xenolith #Grenville #Appalachians

A photo of a Cretaceous dyke intruding into Appalachian-deformed sedimentary rocks deposited in the lower Paleozoic: Earth history from 110 to almost 500 million years ago.

But #kyanite records more of the story: it's part of xenoliths brought to the surface by these dykes that document Grenville crust (1.1 billion years old) at depth.

See: Trzcienski: Kyanite-garnet-bearing Cambrian rocks and Grenville granulites from the Ayer's Cliff, Quebec... Geology (1989)
#MinCup25 #Quebec #Appalachians

The organizers of #MinCup25 are very clever. Today and yesterday feature three aluminosilicates that are compositionally co-linear!

Diagram from Barton (1982), published in the American Mineralogist.

#kyanite #topaz #zunyite #aluminosilicate #MineralSocAmerica #ArgillicAlteration

Kyanite was a key mineral in my PhD thesis, so it will always have my support! Below is a folded kyanite crystal (from my PhD thesis area) Go #kyanite go! Sorry #Sapphirine #MinCup23

Kyanite was a key mineral in my PhD thesis, so it will always have my support! Below is a folded kyanite crystal (from my PhD thesis area) Go #kyanite go! Sorry #Sapphirine #MinCup23

Kyanite was a key mineral in my PhD thesis, so it will always have my support! Below is a folded kyanite crystal (from my PhD thesis area) Go #kyanite go! Sorry #Sapphirine #MinCup23

Kyanite was a key mineral in my PhD thesis, so it will always have my support! Below is a folded kyanite crystal (from my PhD thesis area) Go #kyanite go! Sorry #Sapphirine #MinCup23

Kyanite was a key mineral in my PhD thesis, so it will always have my support! Below is a folded kyanite crystal (from my PhD thesis area) Go #kyanite go! Sorry #Sapphirine #MinCup23

I know #kyanite is more common, but it really doesn't have much else going for it. It's blue. Ok. So is the sky and ocean.
#sapphirine is my jam in this matchup. Rare, handsome, very hard.... works for me. #MinCup23

I know #kyanite is more common, but it really doesn't have much else going for it. It's blue. Ok. So is the sky and ocean.
#sapphirine is my jam in this matchup. Rare, handsome, very hard.... works for me. #MinCup23

I know #kyanite is more common, but it really doesn't have much else going for it. It's blue. Ok. So is the sky and ocean.
#sapphirine is my jam in this matchup. Rare, handsome, very hard.... works for me. #MinCup23

I know #kyanite is more common, but it really doesn't have much else going for it. It's blue. Ok. So is the sky and ocean.
#sapphirine is my jam in this matchup. Rare, handsome, very hard.... works for me. #MinCup23

I know #kyanite is more common, but it really doesn't have much else going for it. It's blue. Ok. So is the sky and ocean.
#sapphirine is my jam in this matchup. Rare, handsome, very hard.... works for me. #MinCup23

You are here. We are currently in Round 1 Match 15: #Sapphirine versus #Kyanite #MinCup23

You are here. We are currently in Round 1 Match 15: #Sapphirine versus #Kyanite #MinCup23

You are here. We are currently in Round 1 Match 15: #Sapphirine versus #Kyanite #MinCup23

You are here. We are currently in Round 1 Match 15: #Sapphirine versus #Kyanite #MinCup23

You are here. We are currently in Round 1 Match 15: #Sapphirine versus #Kyanite #MinCup23

@FaithfullJohn @silicatefondue @jolyon Well there, another new-to-me mineral! I’ll vote for it because it’s interesting. I have always been irritated by #Kyanite because I’ve only seen about a couple tons of it and almost always poor quality. Literal tons. It’s always at the Tucson show in the big tents, sold in chunks, roughs, quantity from Afghanistan. These specimens are quite interesting for #Sapphirine.

@FaithfullJohn @silicatefondue @jolyon Well there, another new-to-me mineral! I’ll vote for it because it’s interesting. I have always been irritated by #Kyanite because I’ve only seen about a couple tons of it and almost always poor quality. Literal tons. It’s always at the Tucson show in the big tents, sold in chunks, roughs, quantity from Afghanistan. These specimens are quite interesting for #Sapphirine.

@FaithfullJohn @silicatefondue @jolyon Well there, another new-to-me mineral! I’ll vote for it because it’s interesting. I have always been irritated by #Kyanite because I’ve only seen about a couple tons of it and almost always poor quality. Literal tons. It’s always at the Tucson show in the big tents, sold in chunks, roughs, quantity from Afghanistan. These specimens are quite interesting for #Sapphirine.

@FaithfullJohn @silicatefondue @jolyon Well there, another new-to-me mineral! I’ll vote for it because it’s interesting. I have always been irritated by #Kyanite because I’ve only seen about a couple tons of it and almost always poor quality. Literal tons. It’s always at the Tucson show in the big tents, sold in chunks, roughs, quantity from Afghanistan. These specimens are quite interesting for #Sapphirine.

@FaithfullJohn @silicatefondue @jolyon Well there, another new-to-me mineral! I’ll vote for it because it’s interesting. I have always been irritated by #Kyanite because I’ve only seen about a couple tons of it and almost always poor quality. Literal tons. It’s always at the Tucson show in the big tents, sold in chunks, roughs, quantity from Afghanistan. These specimens are quite interesting for #Sapphirine.

#MinCup23 Round 1 Match 15 is blue. Very blue. Metamorphically blue.

Pick one: newbie #Sapphirine vs returning #Kyanite.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-15

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-15

#MinCup23 Round 1 Match 15 is blue. Very blue. Metamorphically blue.

Pick one: newbie #Sapphirine vs returning #Kyanite.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-15

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-15

#MinCup23 Round 1 Match 15 is blue. Very blue. Metamorphically blue.

Pick one: newbie #Sapphirine vs returning #Kyanite.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-15

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-15

#MinCup23 Round 1 Match 15 is blue. Very blue. Metamorphically blue.

Pick one: newbie #Sapphirine vs returning #Kyanite.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-15

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-15

#MinCup23 Round 1 Match 15 is blue. Very blue. Metamorphically blue.

Pick one: newbie #Sapphirine vs returning #Kyanite.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-15

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-15