Bill Minarik@MineralCup What a wonderful month of friendly contest! Thank you to all who made #MinCup25 possible!
Although I'm still annoyed that beautiful and intriguing #Sapphirine hasn't been back since 2023!
#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
#Sapphirine can form in aluminum-rich rocks (think feldspar) at high temperatures and moderate pressures.
Sapphirine could be forming today under Olympus Mons: an indigo-blue crystalline heart to the highest planetary mountain in the solar system.
#MinCup23 #SolarSystem #Mars #Planet
Marco A. Lopez-SanchezKyanite 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
There's #sapphirine in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina! Ocean crust, crumpled and buried under the high Appalachians and cooked to 800°C and 9 kbar (granulite facies). Olivine & plagioclase reacted to sapphirine/cpx intergrowths (black/white zebra stripes in the image).
This study was done by Aletha Wachter through NSF Research Experience for Undergrads (REU) projects to Ginny Peterson (now #GrandValleyState) & Jeff Ryan(#USF). Lead Helen Lang (#WVU) sadly has passed away too young. #MinCup23
#Sapphirine growth at high temperatures can help define the path high pressure eclogite facies rocks take to the surface. Sapphirine forming at point "C" and below helps determine that these samples rose 30 km in the crust (16 to 6 kbar) while only cooling a bit over 100°.
NE #Greenland Caledonides work of Synnøve Elvevold (Norwegian Polar Institute, #Tromsø) and Jane Gilotti (#UIowa) #MinCup23
okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithinI 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
#sapphirine is my jam in this matchup. Rare, handsome, very hard.... works for me. #MinCup23
Vicky Veritas
#Sapphirine is a high-grade metamorphic mineral found in rocks from deep in the crust. #MinCup23
More: https://www.alexstrekeisen.it/english/meta/sapphirine.php
cobalt going beige today@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.