#mincup23 — Public Fediverse posts

Also, the #MinCup23 #zircon victory has been published if you’d like an appetizer while you ready your strategies for #MinCup24! Mineral Cup is coming September 1st!!

https://www.mineralcup.org/about/2023

Also, the #MinCup23 #zircon victory has been published if you’d like an appetizer while you ready your strategies for #MinCup24! Mineral Cup is coming September 1st!!

https://www.mineralcup.org/about/2023

They just announced Mineral and Fossil of the Year 2024 in Hungary! Mineral is corundum, and fossil is the woolly mammoth.
Also, Mineral Resource of the Year will be copper.

Yay!

#minerals #MinCup23 #fossils #gems

They just announced Mineral and Fossil of the Year 2024 in Hungary! Mineral is corundum, and fossil is the woolly mammoth.
Also, Mineral Resource of the Year will be copper.

Yay!

#minerals #MinCup23 #fossils #gems

When not writing stories about #zircon for #MinCup23 (hooray!), I can be found on occasion doing other #scicomm. This is from an event over the weekend at the #Australian Parliament House Open Day (to mark 35 years since the opening). Geoscience Australia were invited to tell the stories of the beautiful architectural #stone from around the world used in the design of the building (see examples in the picture). We also threw in some local rocks and #fossils and some of our awesome interactive tubs. It was a busy day but always interesting to talk to the public. Big thanks to the GA and APH organisers for a great day!

When not writing stories about #zircon for #MinCup23 (hooray!), I can be found on occasion doing other #scicomm. This is from an event over the weekend at the #Australian Parliament House Open Day (to mark 35 years since the opening). Geoscience Australia were invited to tell the stories of the beautiful architectural #stone from around the world used in the design of the building (see examples in the picture). We also threw in some local rocks and #fossils and some of our awesome interactive tubs. It was a busy day but always interesting to talk to the public. Big thanks to the GA and APH organisers for a great day!

Well heck. The winner I was expecting. (Can we have an unexpected winner next year? 🤣) congrats, #zircon! #MinCup23

Well heck. The winner I was expecting. (Can we have an unexpected winner next year? 🤣) congrats, #zircon! #MinCup23

#Zircon and #Perovskite are worthy adversaries. Congratulations!

Next year is the year of #sapphirine. Momentum is building -it received 100's of more votes than last year.

Go Blue! Go Sapphirine!
#MInCup23 #Granulite

#Zircon and #Perovskite are worthy adversaries. Congratulations!

Next year is the year of #sapphirine. Momentum is building -it received 100's of more votes than last year.

Go Blue! Go Sapphirine!
#MInCup23 #Granulite

#TeamZircon This is all you! Congratulations! #MinCup23 Champions! Good job #TeamPerovskite!

#TeamZircon This is all you! Congratulations! #MinCup23 Champions! Good job #TeamPerovskite!

An amazing month of mineral facts, photos, and fun. The organizers of #MinCup23, @MineralCup have done an astounding job of keeping everything straight and maintaining the enthusiasm. Thank you!

Thanks also to www.MinDat.org for their support and resources.

An amazing month of mineral facts, photos, and fun. The organizers of #MinCup23, @MineralCup have done an astounding job of keeping everything straight and maintaining the enthusiasm. Thank you!

Thanks also to www.MinDat.org for their support and resources.

#TeamZircon our lead is gone!

If there's anyone you can convince to vote, now's the time

https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-5-match-1
#MinCup23

#TeamZircon our lead is gone!

If there's anyone you can convince to vote, now's the time

https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-5-match-1
#MinCup23

Less than 4 hours remaining to recruit new players and ensure #Zircon is crowned #MinCup23 champion!

Less than 4 hours remaining to recruit new players and ensure #Zircon is crowned #MinCup23 champion!

#Zircon shock twins in zircon with planar fractures in Chicxulub quartz-monzodiorite dike. Do not be complacent #TeamZircon. Call your grandma and your Great Uncle Bob. Rally your colleagues and students. Pester your parents. Annoy your neighbors. This is it! We still need some zircon magic to keep the votes coming! #ZirconRemembers #MinCup23

Vote here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-5-match-1

#Zircon shock twins in zircon with planar fractures in Chicxulub quartz-monzodiorite dike. Do not be complacent #TeamZircon. Call your grandma and your Great Uncle Bob. Rally your colleagues and students. Pester your parents. Annoy your neighbors. This is it! We still need some zircon magic to keep the votes coming! #ZirconRemembers #MinCup23

Vote here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-5-match-1

Brilliant. You can assure this is the last time :) Come join the meme team, and vote for #TeamZircon #MinCup23 #Zircon

Brilliant. You can assure this is the last time :) Come join the meme team, and vote for #TeamZircon #MinCup23 #Zircon

#MinCup23 Here's a gorgeous big zircon crystal in a rock thin section of a Lewisian gneiss from Rodil in South Harris. Field of view about 2mm wide. 🥰 🤩 #VoteZircon #Geology #Mineralogy #Lewisian

#MinCup23 Here's a gorgeous big zircon crystal in a rock thin section of a Lewisian gneiss from Rodil in South Harris. Field of view about 2mm wide. 🥰 🤩 #VoteZircon #Geology #Mineralogy #Lewisian

Do you like sparkle? Gem-quality zircon has a higher refractive index than sapphires or rubies. Blue zircons are more expensive, and are usually are heat-treated. Do not confuse them with cubic zirconium. More here: https://marksingermandesigns.com/2016/12/14/five-essential-things-to-know-about-zircon-gemstones/

#ZirconsAreForever #MinCup23 #Zircon

Do you like sparkle? Gem-quality zircon has a higher refractive index than sapphires or rubies. Blue zircons are more expensive, and are usually are heat-treated. Do not confuse them with cubic zirconium. More here: https://marksingermandesigns.com/2016/12/14/five-essential-things-to-know-about-zircon-gemstones/

#ZirconsAreForever #MinCup23 #Zircon

#MinCup23 Enjoy FUN WITH ZIRCON - award-winning short video by Glasgow student Mirren Green, to accompany her final year lab project in 2019 😊 Vote zircon!!! #Zircon #Geology #Mineralogy #Iona #Lewisian https://youtu.be/W_GuozXgpR8?si=VmkehYZVqE2h_bqW

#MinCup23 Enjoy FUN WITH ZIRCON - award-winning short video by Glasgow student Mirren Green, to accompany her final year lab project in 2019 😊 Vote zircon!!! #Zircon #Geology #Mineralogy #Iona #Lewisian https://youtu.be/W_GuozXgpR8?si=VmkehYZVqE2h_bqW

https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-5-match-1 And for chrissakes don't vote for #Zircon. It wins every year.

#MinCup23 #MineralCup

#MinCup23 It's the FINAL!! Vote zircon - the friend of the foramanifera 🥰 https://aus.social/@ksircombe/111156616671274672

I can't believe we already got to the #MinCup23 finals! Zircon gets my folklore vote, strengthened by excellent campaigning by the Time Lord team 😄

What the heck am I gonna read campaigns about for the next 11 months?...

Thank you, MinCup team, you are the best! 😊

The time has come for me to bring up the time I had a picture with David Tennant, TimeLord.
Vote #Zircon #MinCup23 @MineralCup #TeamZircon

Voted for #perovskite because #zircon has an early, fast lead and at this point everyone is singing its praises. Pffft.

Anyway this #MinCup23 has been fun but I think I will pick a different criteria to vote on next year. 🤣 too many minerals don't fit "chaos" (by my admittedly somewhat arbitrary definition, but hey, aren't we all using somewhat arbitrary scales in the end? 🤣🤣)!

Also may perovskite win!!

Almost halfway through the voting window for the second semi-final in this year's Mineral Cup and the Fortress of Solitude just has the lead over the Borg Cube, but the difference is so little as to be practically negligible.

How did I vote? Well, I like Star Trek, I like the Borg, but I also like to be contrary, so #Stibnite got my vote over #Perovskite in this case.

#MinCup23

Almost halfway through the voting window for the second semi-final in this year's Mineral Cup and the Fortress of Solitude just has the lead over the Borg Cube, but the difference is so little as to be practically negligible.

How did I vote? Well, I like Star Trek, I like the Borg, but I also like to be contrary, so #Stibnite got my vote over #Perovskite in this case.

#MinCup23

#Stibnite vs #Perovskite?
I know I'm supposed to care, but I really don't.
Pick one. Vote. Or not.
And #Zircon? Yawn, Whatever.
Yay....
All that's left are expansion teams.
#MinCup23

#Neptunite is one of a few calcium-free titanium silicates (incl. benitoite). Seems like an obscure fact but:

#Zircon includes titanium in its structure, as a function of temperature; this can be a #geothermometer.

To standardize a microbeam analysis (like laser ablation ICPMS), we need a mineral with a known composition, lots of titanium and silica and no calcium, which has an isotope at mass 48. Neptunite and benitoite are perfect for this.

#MinCup23 #ICPMS #chemistry #geology

#Neptunite is one of a few calcium-free titanium silicates (incl. benitoite). Seems like an obscure fact but:

#Zircon includes titanium in its structure, as a function of temperature; this can be a #geothermometer.

To standardize a microbeam analysis (like laser ablation ICPMS), we need a mineral with a known composition, lots of titanium and silica and no calcium, which has an isotope at mass 48. Neptunite and benitoite are perfect for this.

#MinCup23 #ICPMS #chemistry #geology

#Venus doesn't have much (if any) #calcite, no limestone, and little if any other carbonates.

Those carbonates instead are CO2 in Venus' atmosphere -over 90 times our atmospheric pressure. This gives Venus a surface temperature of 475°C.

Poor Venus.

Calcite for a habitable planet!

#MinCup23 #SolarSystem #CosmoChemistry

#Venus doesn't have much (if any) #calcite, no limestone, and little if any other carbonates.

Those carbonates instead are CO2 in Venus' atmosphere -over 90 times our atmospheric pressure. This gives Venus a surface temperature of 475°C.

Poor Venus.

Calcite for a habitable planet!

#MinCup23 #SolarSystem #CosmoChemistry

Some #corundum on Earth is older than our solar-system; these pre-solar grains are found in some chondritic meteorites. Oxygen isotopes reveal that they formed in the puffed-off atmospheres of old red-giant stars. From Frisch et al. 2005.
#MinCup23 #Cosmochemistry #Meteorites

Some #corundum on Earth is older than our solar-system; these pre-solar grains are found in some chondritic meteorites. Oxygen isotopes reveal that they formed in the puffed-off atmospheres of old red-giant stars. From Frisch et al. 2005.
#MinCup23 #Cosmochemistry #Meteorites

limpet teeth, a composite containing #goethite, are the strongest known biological material in tension -twice as strong as spider silk.
#MinCup23 #Limpet #Minerals #Materials
https://daily.jstor.org/worlds-strongest-material-limpet-teeth/

Rumney, R.M.H., Robson, S.C., Kao, A.P. et al. Biomimetic generation of the strongest known biomaterial found in limpet tooth. Nat Commun 13, 3753 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31139-0
Open Access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31139-0

limpet teeth, a composite containing #goethite, are the strongest known biological material in tension -twice as strong as spider silk.
#MinCup23 #Limpet #Minerals #Materials
https://daily.jstor.org/worlds-strongest-material-limpet-teeth/

Rumney, R.M.H., Robson, S.C., Kao, A.P. et al. Biomimetic generation of the strongest known biomaterial found in limpet tooth. Nat Commun 13, 3753 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31139-0
Open Access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31139-0

i voted for quartz #MinCup23 #TeamQuartz

You can add your vote for this beautiful & versatile mineral here https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

#crystals #rockhound #quartz #Hobbies

i voted for quartz #MinCup23 #TeamQuartz

You can add your vote for this beautiful & versatile mineral here https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

#crystals #rockhound #quartz #Hobbies

My favorite rock is #BandedIronFormation, a sedimentary rock comprised of thin bands of #Magnetite and #Hematite interlaced with (usually) reddish #jasper (chert #quartz). It's beautiful, primarily down to #TeamQuartz. Sadly, neither hematite or magnetite are in #MinCup23 Vote for quartz here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

My favorite rock is #BandedIronFormation, a sedimentary rock comprised of thin bands of #Magnetite and #Hematite interlaced with (usually) reddish #jasper (chert #quartz). It's beautiful, primarily down to #TeamQuartz. Sadly, neither hematite or magnetite are in #MinCup23 Vote for quartz here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

We have #Moissanite crystals that formed in other stars! Dissolve some meteorites almost completely, and some of the residue is SiC -these grains have carbon and silicon isotopes produced in red giant stars and supernova; from before our solar system formed. See Larry Nittler's (now at Arizona State University #ASU) presentation:
https://www.oca.eu/images/LAGRANGE/EcolesThematiques/Houches_2017/pdf/5a_Presolar_grains_Nittler.pdf
#MinCup23 #Cosmochemistry #Stardust

We have #Moissanite crystals that formed in other stars! Dissolve some meteorites almost completely, and some of the residue is SiC -these grains have carbon and silicon isotopes produced in red giant stars and supernova; from before our solar system formed. See Larry Nittler's (now at Arizona State University #ASU) presentation:
https://www.oca.eu/images/LAGRANGE/EcolesThematiques/Houches_2017/pdf/5a_Presolar_grains_Nittler.pdf
#MinCup23 #Cosmochemistry #Stardust