Sand from Black Sands Beach in Marin Headlands is .... not black. ⚒️

The answer to this Guess the Gem is vesuvianite!! This mineral was named after the volcano Mount Vesuvius, whose eruption destroyed Pompeii. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Earth Matters is an exhibition of art, craft and design inspired by Hutton and subsequent trailblazers who have helped challenge and change our understanding of soil 🌱 See emotive and innovative pieces for free at Inverlieth House, RGBE, open every day until 1st November. 📅

May the forsterite be with you #MineralMonday #minerals (Image thumbnail: bright green forsterite crystals on a black lumpy matrix) www.mindat.org/photo-669327...

An anticline in Shady Dolomite for today's #FridayFold, exposed along the New River Trail in Wythe County, Virginia. ⚒️

Although critical raw materials seem to appear in the news every day, few people truly understand how they are sourced, what they are used for, the impact they have on our society and environment, and how vital they are to the transition toward green technology.

Quite the vibrant ruby!! Ruby is a variety of the mineral species corundum. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Now this is a cool mineral I've never heard of before. Tubulite is named for its weird morphology (Image thumbnail shows two crystals of tubulite which look like very shiny metal tubes, on boulangerite wires. The tubes are about 0.4mm long) #minerals #MineralMonday www.mindat.org/photo-120162...

Back in the lab, I'm checking out some of the sediment I collected last week in Baja. This is sand from San Marcos Island. ⚒️

A stunning melding of palaeontology and mineralogy (well mineraloid-ology) in this opalized plesiosaur vertebra. Isn’t it gorgeous? #FossilFriday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

A #FridayFold in Franciscan mélange on Perle's Beach, Angel Island, CA. ⚒️

Channel filled with welded tuff, incised into volcaniclastic debris flow deposits, central Baja. ⚒️

This is your brain on #minerals A specimen of geyserite (a type of siliceous rock that forms around hot springs and geysers) from Fire Hole River, Yellowstone, USA

A bow tie!! This is a classic form of the zeolite mineral stilbite. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Happy #FoldFriday and have a nice weekend! ⚒️🧪 Photo from Kirkeporten, Norway. #photography

Halite casts in Tonoloway dolostone. ⚒️

For this holiday Mineral Monday, I present an itty bitty egg shaped from fluorite. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

🎶...Just another mylonitic Monday...🎶 ⚒️

I just saw that it’s Geologists Day today!!! To share my excitement about geology, here is one of my favourite types of rock: obsidian!! This is a thin polished slice showing flow banding. #GeologistsDay #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Happy International Geologist's Day! Now for real. Below are the Easter-most igneous rocks out there. The orbicular granite slabs near the Department of the Earth Sciences in Uppsala University. 🧪 ⚒️ #Geology

Happy Geologists’ Day!!! Geology is for everyone, especially those who love cool rocks and minerals like this quartz!!! #GeoscienceBluesky #GeologistsDay

Brecciated Catoctin Formation in thin section ⚒️

The answer is the tourmaline group!! There are numerous mineral species in this group and a variety of colours! #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Happy April Fool's Gold Day! #minerals #GeologistProblems

So that's #365Minerals over and done with. It's been eight(!) years since I did the first #365Minerals over on Twitter - it was inspired by #365Papers. I'm glad that this time around I could use my own photos of specimens on display in the NHM! Thanks for following! 🧪⚒️💎

So not quite a mineral for this week’s Mineral Monday, but this mineraloid opal is such a stunner. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Have you ever seen mica in the shape of a star? Muscovite is more commonly seen as books of near hexagonal layers. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Nature said flowers… geology said forever. Spring is in full formation at the Museum. Can you see the flowers in these rocks? #springbreak #Mineralmonday #dmms

The Society of Mineral Museum Professionals has just joined Bluesky!!! Happy to join this network for mineral and museum news and geoscience discussions! #MineralMonday #MuseumMonday