Logging on for the first time in forever to share exciting work done by my husband and his colleagues. 18 million year old enamel proteins from the Turkana Basin, Kenya.

I didn’t have anything to do with it, but it’s very cool.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2487702-oldest-proteins-yet-recovered-from-18-million-year-old-teeth/

@cbdawson the chaos makes it more fun 😄

@cbdawson it’s also worth noting that I also like messing with my husband who is one of those people who are adamant that mercury isn’t a mineral 😂

@cbdawson it’s funny to see people get big mad about it as if it’s the big issue geology should working on, instead of just shrugging it off as a exception to the rule and moving on 😂. And the definition of mineral doesn’t specify a temperature range anyway, so I don’t see a problem just going with it. It’s not that big a deal. And maybe it’s because we’ve had this fight so many times over ice so all I can do now is laugh

Today’s matchup between calcite and mercury is a difficult one for me. Not because I can’t choose which is my favorite (I love calcite), but because there a part of me that just wants to vote for mercury because it upsets so many people that mercury is on a mineral list 😈 #MinCup23 https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/campaigns/campaigns/round-2-match-5

I love both topaz and corundum, but today I’m rooting for corundum because I’ve always loved rubies and sapphires more and my husband has given me two pieces of jewelry with sapphires, including my engagement ring https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/campaigns/campaigns/round-2-match-4

@Anthro I don’t really know where it came from. It’s possible I bought it, lost it in my car, and completely forgot about it, but the specimen info is missing. One of my friends may have dropped it after a gem and mineral show and it got lost. All I know is that I found it cleaning out my old jeep.

Having a difficult time deciding today for #MinCup23. It’s my favorite teal copper mineral vs my favorite goth girly, Vivian. I’ll probably go with dioptase because of my attachment to my little dioptase friend I found in my car, but I won’t be mad no matter which wins. https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/campaigns/round-2-match-3

@tsherrygeo that is simultaneously awesome and mean 😆

Everyone likes showing photos of clear quartz, but I love #quartz because it can be purple (and other colors)! Just look at this amethyst! Stibnite is cool looking, but it isn’t this lovely color. #MinCup23 https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/campaigns/round-2-match-2

Photos from Mindat.org

Kaolinite gets my vote today for #MinCup23. It’s used to make paper, ceramics, paint, and lots of other things. In some places in the US you can go into a convenience store and buy a bag to help with tummy troubles. Go team anti-diarrheal!

Providence Canyon in Lumpkin, GA (USA) was formed by bad farming practices in the 1800s. It’s 150 feet deep and one of the exposed formations contains lenses of kaolin. It was one of my favorite geology field trips!

Easy vote for me today. My choice is the absolutely gorgeous pink #rhodochrosite which I fell in love with as soon as I saw samples from the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado. #MinCup23 https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-16

Photo from Mindat.org

Tough choice today for #MinCup23 Both are gorgeous and no matter which one wins, it’s a blue mineral! My choice for today is trusty index mineral #kyanite which always gives me a clue to how a rock was formed. And it has different hardness depending on which direction you scratch it (insert your own naughty joke about hardness here). https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-15

Photo found on Mindat.org so check out more photos there

Oops, forgot the link to vote https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-14

I’m going with #Neptunite for today’s #MinCup23 matchup. It has beautiful crystals, is friends with Benitoite, and it’s named after the Roman god of the sea because of its close association with aegerine (named after the Norse god of the sea) at its type locality.

Photo from Mindat and by Fabre Minerals (www.fabreminerals.com)

@alexsv it’s not a word that I often get the chance to use, so I was excited

No particularly drawn to either of the minerals for todays matchup in #MinCup23 but I’m going with #bischofite for 2 reasons: 1) MgCl is used as a dust suppressant in arid regions to keep down fugitive (mineral) dust and 2) my brain reads it as Bitch of Ite, which is a excellent sobriquet for a fantasy novel

https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-13

#Galena is a primary ore mineral for lead.

Lead batteries are used in most cars (even electric) for the low-voltage accessories. They are essential for polar areas, as they can be charged at freezing temperatures.

Due to its toxicity, lead is the most recycled metal -over 99% of lead is recycled in North America; far more than the components of solar cells, wind turbines, or lithium batteries.

#Lead is the closest we have to a closed-loop #sustainable resource.
#MinCup23

Couldn’t fit the link so here it is: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-12

Vote galena!

I’m just getting around to posting today’s #MinCup23 matchup with less than 2 hours to go. Today, I went with galena over perovskite. Galena is a major lead ore and hydrothermal galena is an important source of silver as well! Silver-rich galena is sometimes call “argentiferous” galena, which I think is fun to say even if it’s just a fancy way of saying it’s silver-bearing. Galena is one of my favorite sulfides to find in the field, even when it’s not pretty crystals.