Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #MinCup2020

Most recents (9)

Today’s distraction:

The winner of this match will face #Magnetite for the finals with a shot at the #MinCup2020 crown. Both are beautiful & bizarre with odd properties and a lot of charm.
Both are Safe But Boring to lick. They even have similar texture (smooth). As far as your tongue in concerned, it’s a wash. You’ll need different criteria to pick your fav.

(One #MinCup we’ll have either a Fun To Lick or a Do Not Lick finalist and I will be overjoyed)
#Fluorite is a basic calcium fluoride (CaF2), which didn’t give me headaches when memorizing composition for mineralogy exams.

Amusingly, the element is named for the mineral, not the other way around. Same for fluorescence: the effect named for the rock’s distinctive property.
Read 10 tweets
Literally nothing about the debate tonight could possibly change how I vote, and I don’t want to deal with either rage or despair from hearing his horrid voice and cruel ideals.

So I’m focusing elsewhere.

On geologic glitter, specifically.
Today’s #MinCup2020 battle is a showdown between glitter vs magnetics.

I am forever & always #TeamShiny.
Which is losing.
#Magnetite is a pretty cool mineral. It’s key to a lot of geophysics, I like collecting it with a fridge magnet on beaches, and it makes for a cool high-impact low-effort geo demo.

But then there’s #Muscovite, a subset of mica & the essence of #TeamSparkle. It’s SO SHINY.
Read 14 tweets
Both today’s #MinCup2020 contestants are Very Good Rocks.

#Kyanite: so finicky it’ll change structure to different minerals depending on temperature & pressure

#Corundum: a hard (Mohs 9!) workhorse with a shiny side when contaminated (aka, ruby & sapphire).
Both minerals seem very suitable as 2020 Champions.

Who among us isn’t a bit blue, spiked, & highly responsive to pressure? Congrats, #Kyanite is kin.

Yet we’re also surviving day after day without being ground down, and still finding moments of sheer beauty. That’s #Corundum.
I voted #Kyanite because I love unmistakable-to-ID minerals and appreciate when they shout their stories in case I’m being oblivious, but it could’ve gone either way.

With such a close margin (58 votes right now!), your input could swing this. Go on, browse & pick a fav.
Read 3 tweets
Reasons to vote for #MinCup2020 competitors:

#Elbaite: lures the unwary into disappointment & broken teeth by looking like a watermelon jollyrancher but actually being extremely hard & flavourless

#Fluorite: Nature’s glowing d8
You’ve gotten into all kinds of mischief with #Elbaite during #YouFindARock:
Meanwhile, #Fluorite is just wandering around the planet looking like this:
Read 3 tweets
Today #MinCup2020 is a battle of the carbonates.

Reasons to vote #Calcite: Perfect cleavage

Reasons to vote #Malachite: Specimen CC3353 from Copper Crescent in D.R. Congo.

📷 Crystal Classics Side view of an extremely p...Alternate side view of an e...Top view of an extremely ph...Cut bottom view of an extre...
Q: Lick?
A: Sure, #malachite is safe but boring for a quick taste.

Q: Nibble!
A: Ehhhh, not such a great idea. It’s soft (3.5-4 vs teeth at 5) & copper isn’t exactly a healthy snack.

Q: 🍆?
A: Pls no. While #Calcite bubbles in acid, malachite slowly dissolved into green goop.
Q: PERFECT cleavage? Really?

A: If you SMASHY-SMASHY calcite, it breaks on planes of weakness (cleavage planes) into 6-sided polyhedrons with diamond-shaped faces with 78° & 102° angles.

See:
📷: ??? stolen from old textbooks I think??? Calcite Crystal broken into...Calcite crystal and hammer ...
Read 3 tweets
#Opal: Safe But Boring To Lick

#Halite: Lick

Halite isn’t just safe & interesting to lick, but essential to human diets.
Hi. Excuse me. I heard you like licking rocks for science? And enjoy extremely salty takes about trivial things?

Well.
#MinCup2020 is EXTREMELY CLOSE right now, with #Opal just barely beating #Halite. Vote for salt so I can write epic threads on it during Round 2. Deal?
...salt is about to lose by 23 votes.
Read 3 tweets
I rolled the dice to randomize the #MinCup2020 bracket.

I’m pretty sure my dice hate me. These are both SUCH GOOD MINERALS, and I’m still working on a deadline so can’t thread yet.
We’ve played a few games with #gold.

I played out the consequences of some seriously creepy fiction:

& you thoroughly investigated gold during #YouFindARock:
Read 10 tweets
Oh NO.

If you ever wanted proof #MinCup2020 brackets are randomly assigned, it’s that I would never, ever pit my easy favs against each other in Round 1.
Once upon a time a hunk of #sodalite glowing under UV light went viral with a stolen video with a misleading caption and capture your imagination:
Meanwhile, you once stumbled upon a chunk of #Wulfenite during #YouFindARock and spent an afternoon playing with it.
Read 5 tweets
It's 2020, the year where anything can happen.

The #MinCup2020 bracket is sticking to the rules with all official minerals. Voting starts September 1st.

Who will join legends #Olivine (2017), #Garnet (2018), & #IceMin (2019) to be this year's #champion? Bracket reading in order: B...
#MinCup2020 is kicking off quasi-alphabetically in a battle of peacock ore #Bornite vs poisonous red #Cinnabar

Pick your champion, make your arguments, and VOTE!
ROUND 1 MATCH 1 goes to #Cinnabar with a 8% lead over rainbow #Bornite! The same bracket, but with ...
Read 6 tweets

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