#mincup2023 — Public Fediverse posts

How, you might ask, does a perfectly formed #zircon get into a sapphire?

Sapphire melting temp: around 2030 °C. (wikipedia)
Zircon melting temp: high melting point (over 2500°C). (https://www.ga.gov.au/education/classroom-resources/minerals-energy/australian-mineral-facts/zircon)
Tiny zircons can withstand a lot of what makes and destroys other minerals.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-4-match-1

#TeamZircon #MinCup23 #MinCup2023 #MineralCup23 #MineralCup2023 #MineralCup #MinCup #SciComm #Science #Minerals #Geology #Mineralogy #Teaching #Education

#TeamCalcite #MinCup2023

#TeamCalcite #MinCup2023

Just leaving this here. Zircon and monazite. You're not going to see calcite in a sapphire, it couldn't take the heat.
#TeamZircon #sapphire #MineralInclusions #euhedral #MinCup23 #MinCup2023 #MineralCup23 #MineralCup2023 #MineralCup #MinCup #SciComm #Science #Minerals #Geology #Mineralogy #Teaching #Education #STEM #Zircon

If you are enjoying these posts, please consider voting for #calcite in #mincup2023. No obligation and just takes a quick click.

Link here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-3-match-3

And in the bottom of that #calcite valley, coming from that #calcite cave, is a #calcite laden stream that when it goes over a cascade, releases a little CO2, and because of the equilibrium, deposits #calcite to create..

...A MONSTER TUFA DEPOSIT!!!

(Look at the tiny people in corner.)

#calcite is way cool!

Vote #calcite!

OK, y'all, please vote #calcite for #mincup2023

Vote here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-3-match-3

And in the bottom of that limestone valley?

There is a pretty cave. That has beautiful orthogonal cross-jointing in #calcite. It is the Grotte de Baumes les Messieurs. Those joints got widened by water percolating through and dissolving along the joints and widening as it flowed through.

This is looking up at one of the cross-joints.

But there's even more in that valley....

While you are thinking about voting for #calcite in #MinCup2023.

(vote here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-3-match-3)

Maybe you'd like to see a pretty calcite (limestone) valley in France...

Gee, I wonder if there is anything geologically interesting at the bottom...

(vote #calcite while you are waiting for next post)

GO #Calcite
Whoo-hoo!

Pleaes vote for for your favorite (#calcite) mineral here for #MinCup2023

https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-3-match-3

And here is a pretty picture of #calcite doing the #calcite thing. Glowing in the dark as stalactites in a cave. Lit up with a UV light.

Voting #Calcite in #MinCup2023 because calcite can dissolve and make caves, sinkholes, poljes, and other fun karsty things.

Vote here! https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-3-match-3

Wanna learn some funky wierd stuff about how calcite dissolves in water? Read on...

[1/n]

#MinCup2023 Today, it has to be #Corundum. Here's some more of the blue sapphire variety from Mull - these small (<1mm) crystals were isolated by dissolving a block of sapphire-bearing rock in hydrofluoric acid😱 . But don't they look fine! 🥰 🤩 Hunterian Museum specimen. #Geology #Mull #Minerals

#MinCup2023 Corundum vs stibnite. Both minerals spark joy, but it's got to be #corundum for me - pretty much a local Mull speciality. Here's a very large, but very thin, blue sapphire crystal I collected from a melted pelite xenolith in the Loch Scridain sill complex. #Geology #Mineral #Mull https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-3-match-2

#MinCup2023 cacoxenite vs kyanite. Although I have a soft spot for the golden fluff, it has to be kyanite. Blue kyanite makes any rock better: look at this wonderful combination with pink garnet from the Lewisian Leverburgh Belt in South Harris! 😊 🥰 🤩 #Geology #Kyanite

@MineralCup #Dioptase images. Stunningly gorgeous & vivid green turquoise colour gem, cubes or cuboids or whatever your technical terms. Pictures saved from Twtr or Google, likely during 2021 or 2022 #MinCup2023.

Dioptase need 20+ votes more ATM, so loads more by later on I expect.

https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/campaigns/round-2-match-3

Dioptase on a matrix of sky-blue chrysocolla.
Dioptase gem.
Dioptase on calcite.

#MinCup23 (Damn tag based 'economy' here.)

@minouette

things I really love

#geology — and
#serpentine-related rocks

#language/ #linguistics — and insular #Celtic #languages and I'm especially fascinated with neo-#Britonnic descendants, including #Cornish.

#Pink is cool but this might have decided my #vote.

#nerd
#MinCup2023