Before I forget. Many thanks to the @MineralCup team for moderating the competition!
Many thanks to all my friends and furriends who took part in #MinCup23. We are very curious about which #minerals take part next year....
Simba🐾
#MinCup23 #CatsOfTwitter #Mincup2023 #DoesItCat #catsofmastodon

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

Just realised how #DoesItCat #Perovskite is:
CATio3 this is #DoesItCat to the max
Go #TeamPerovskitty

Vote here
https://www.mineralcup.org/

#MinCup23 #MinCup2023 #CatsofTwitter #catsofmastodon

Today at #MinCup23 its #Perovskite vs #Rhodochrosite. After my dental surgery yesterday I read that CaTio3 Perovskite grows on #titan implants & helps the body to bond with the implant🐾
PAWSOME #mineral
Go PEROVSKITE
#DOESITSCAT Yes it helps to repair the canopener

#MinCup2023 #catsofmastodon

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.

Today its #Calcite vs #Kyanite in the #MinCup23 quartefinals. 2 of my favourite #minerals. I vote for #calcite the #sunstone i.e. #compass #mineral. Look what an pawsome specimen my humans saw lately in Iceland
Humans #PawForScale
#MinCup2023

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]

Today #Corundum needs my help against #Stibnite at #MinCup23. It's used as abrasive because it's harder than my teeth & makes beautiful #gemstones with #cat eye effect. Even the Kaiser chiefs have a song about the red variety Ruby Ruby Ruby-mmh maybe it's not about the #mineral
#mincup2023 #catsofmastodon

#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

Today at #MinCup23 it's #Arsenuranospathite vs #Rhodochrosite. Rhodocrosite #mineral with simple chemical composition or Arsenuranospathite. Some sources say that the crystal system of Arsenuranospathite is still not 100% clear-I vote for the glowing riddle-mysterious like a #cat

#MinCup2023 #catsofmastodon

I went with #arsenuranospathite because I am allergic to pink. XP

#MinCup2023

Today's #MinCup23 duel is between #Kyanite aka #Disthene & #Cacoxenite. The duel between the #sunflower #mineral and the mineral of 2 hardnesses...
I go for Disthene🐾
#DoesItCat? Yes
#MinCup2023 #catsofinstagram #catsofmastodon

#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