Tessera

This image is a humorous and scientific reinterpretation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, comparing human needs to the Igneous QAPF rock classification. The pyramid is divided into five layers, labeled from bottom to top:

Physiological needs (red): Includes "food, water, warmth, rest," representing the fundamental human requirements.
Safety needs (orange): Refers to "security, safety," emphasizing stability and protection.
Belongingness & love needs (green): Highlights "intimate relationships, friends," which symbolize social connections.
Granite (blue): Subdivided into "syeno- and monzo-granite, granodiorite, tonalite," humorously comparing human psychological needs to various granite compositions.
Quartz-rich Granitoids (purple): Defined as "might not be igneous," reflecting the highest level of need in the context of "Quartz-rich needs."

As you might have noticed mindat.org is in 'READ ONLY' mode right now as we move servers. It's going to take a few more days for the databases to import correctly in their new home (and we did as much as we could in advance) and then we'll be faster than ever before!

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Mindat.org is the world's leading website about minerals and where they come from.

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So I was given this old trophy that had a rock on it, and turns out it's a piece of "platinum-rich"* ore from the Merensky Reef, South Africa. Some nice visible chromite and sulfides (pentlandite/pyrrhotite?) along with the usual silicate gunk. * Everything is relative.

A piece of merensky reef rock on a trophy dated 1974, "The Johnson Matthey Award"

Yes, there's a page on mindat.org for flourite

Killer Micros! IYKYK

Minerals labelled as 'KILLER MICROS!' showing small specimens of cuprosklodowskite and kasolite from the Munsonoi mine, Congo.

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 2y ago

LEGO minerals are on the way! Congratulations Dario.

Proterozoic Rocks xkcd.com/3008

Keichousaurus from China, showing a visible tectonic neck split with a calcite vein! Expertly prepared by Kim Yunghuyn.

The image shows Jolyon's hand holding a flat stone slab containing a fossil of a Keichousaurus, a prehistoric marine reptile. The fossil features an elongated skeleton with a distinct head, long neck, and visible spine and limb bones. Notably, the neck appears to have been sheared by tectonic action, with a misalignment visible where the neck bones meet the head, likely caused by geological forces over time. A label in Korean, English, and Chinese characters identifies the specimen as "Keichousaurus" and provides details about its origin and classification. The stone has a rough, textured surface with natural cracks running through it.

Woohoo! Marshall Ma's paper on OpenMindat, which I am a co-author on, has just won the Geoscience Information Society Paper of the Year award. It's all the more special getting awards in academia considering I don't even have a degree. rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

OpenMindat: Open and FAIR mineralogy data from the Mindat database
Xiaogang Ma, Jolyon Ralph, Jiyin Zhang, Xiang Que, Anirudh Prabhu, Shaunna M. Morrison, Robert M. Hazen, Lesley Wyborn, Kerstin Lehnert
First published: 29 May 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.204Citations: 4

1950s illustration of the Pacific without the ocean. From Geological Society of America Memoir 64.

ARTIST’S CONCEPTION OF THE MID-PACIFIC MOUNTAINS
If the Pacific Ocean were drained away, the mile-deep sunken islands would emerge as truncated volcanic cones.
The original oil painting is by the distinguished scientific illustrator Chesley Bonestell and is based on part of the bathymetric chart of the Mid-Pacific range

There are now 494,884 PDFs available for download in the Rock H. Currier Digital Library. www.mindat.org/reference.php

The image is a screenshot of a webpage titled "The Rock H. Currier Digital Library." It features a header menu with options such as "Library Home," "Bookshelves," "View by Type," "Using Search," "Administration," and "Add a new Reference." Below that, there is a search bar with dropdown options for selecting search types. A welcome message reads, "Welcome to the Rock H. Currier Digital Library," explaining that the library serves as a reference archive supporting the work in building mindat.org and offering links to original publishers where possible.

Beneath the message, there is a "Latest Downloads" section with images of reference documents and their titles/authors listed below. Some examples include:

A reference in Russian authored by several individuals in 2024 titled "Инженерная геология [Engineering geology]."
A reference from Paul H. Reitan titled "The geology of the Komagfjord tectonic window of the Raipas site, Finnmark, Norway" published in 1963.
Other geology-related reports from various authors, including geological surveys from Norway (NGU).
The layout is organized with clickable items and icons that indicate whether a PDF is available for download.

Did a thing. Want to be part of the thing? Let us know. go.bsky.app/3Z5SFJr

Post nicht verfügbar.

You may have heard of left and right-handed quartz, but did you know that hundreds of minerals are chiral, that is have left and right handed variants? A new open-access paper by David Avnir explores this... www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/14...

Chiral Minerals

Hundreds of minerals are chiral, that is, they appear in nature in two forms—left-handed and right-handed. Yet except for quartz, this key structural property has remained, by and large, in shadow in ...

mdpi.com

Because of the continuing downward trajectory of 'the other place', we'll start posting here more!

Jolyon Ralph 🪨@jolyon.bsky.social · 3y ago

Ten years ago we went to visit the type locality of Dioptase in Kazakhstan - and an amazing adventure was had. www.mindat.org/article.php/... #MinCup23

Visit to Altyn Tyube, Kazakhstan

The Type Locality for Dioptase - Altyn Tyube Last week I was in Kazakhstan and met up with local mineral dealer Sergei Golomolzin for a pre-planned visit to a couple of mineral localities in the ...

mindat.org

Don't miss the Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium, which you can watch live on ZOOM on Saturday August 19, 2023. Also see details of the online auction, where you can get a bargain and support mindat.org (and other worthy causes) at the same time! https://www.irocks.com/dallas-mineral-collecting...

Juli Emry @parodyite.bsky.social · 3y ago

Did you know the mindat Photo of the Day changes every day? Well, duh, of course you did. But do you look every day? In 15 minutes this one will be gone, replaced with something else! https://www.mindat.org/photo-918741.html

Just a moment...

mindat.org

Just had one if the biggest geology nerd-love experiences EVER. @mindat.bsky.social found and followed me first! Probably doesn't seem like a biggie, but y'all have to understand how much I LOVE & frequently used the site for my research & when teaching Intro/Sed/Mineralogy labs. 🥰

Mindat.org@mindat.bsky.social · 3y ago

Did you know that mindat.org now has a massive reference library with details on over 16 million geoscience articles, books, etc - and with close to half a million downloadable PDFs. More being added daily! https://www.mindat.org/reference.php 🧪 Geosciences ⚒️

Jolyon Ralph 🪨@jolyon.bsky.social · 3y ago

Are you a mineral freak who's having a baby? Here are some nice mineralogical names for your child: Amethyst Diamond Topaz Jade Rutile Kyanite Andalusite Dolomite Uraninite Massicot Plumbogummite Hexatestibiopanickelite Calciumhilgardite-2M(Cc) UM1990-38-S:CuFeIrNiPtRh

Celeste Labedz@celestelabedz.bsky.social · 3y ago

Are you a geoscientist who's having a baby? Here are some nice geological names for your child: Ruby Jasper Amethyst River Feldspar Cretaceous Ooid Asthenosphere P-Wave Strike & Dip (for twins) Trilobite Paleo-Tethys MORB

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