SO COOL!! Sulphur taking the shape of a pinecone!! It replaced the original material. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The bulky herbivore, Barylambda faberi, a pantodont from the Paleocene. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

Olympic curling has to be the sporting highlight of the Scottish geological calendar. 🥌 All the stones come from Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde. The distinctive black spots are (mostly) the very weird and rare amphibole arfvedsonite. #ThinSectionThursday

The answer to this Guess the Gem is watermelon tourmaline!! This tourmaline group variety has crystals with a pink centre and a green rim. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem!! What mineral, group, or variety do you think these gems are? Hint: this variety is named after food. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Look at these gorgeous deep green crystals of uvarovite, some showing that classic garnet crystal shape!! It’s from Outokumpu, Finland. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Haptodus garnettensis is a synapsid from the early Permian. Look at those well preserved little sharp teeth!! #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

The answer to this Guess the Gem is topaz!! This one is from Minais Gerais, Brazil, which is known for large crystals. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: at 2,982 carats, it’s the largest cut gem in this museum’s collection! #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

A beautiful sculptural golden gypsum specimen. Such a pretty mineral with many uses. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Therapod dinosaur Unenlagia comahuensis ready to pounce. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

Ceratopsian dinosaur found in Alberta: Wendiceratops pinhornensis. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

The answer is labradorite!! It is a feldspar variety in the albite-anorthite series that has the cool iridescent optical effect called labradorescence. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem today!! What mineral or variety do you think this gem is? Hint: it has a schiller. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

So this one is bacon adjacent, it looks like wagyu beef 😂. This is the pink variety thulite of the mineral zoisite from Norway. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

A majestic hadrosaur, Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, in front of some great vintage murals. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

The answer is the mineral corundum, the red variety is ruby!! The blue variety is sapphire. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem Tuesday!! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: the mineral’s crystals are barrel shaped. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

First Mineral Monday of the new year!! I love the natural artistry of this scolecite (a mineral in the zeolite group). The careful balance of the three crystal clusters is gorgeous!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

First #FridayFold of 2026 - a new one for me, since I was able to hike further up Mosaic Canyon this year than I have on any previous visit. This appears to be a somewhat shaly subsection of the Noonday Dolomite? ⚒️

Green epidote from an old teaching collection. It was fun to see minerals that trained geologists in the past. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

A folded schist from Scotland showing that the different layers react to the tectonic forces, some folding easier than others. #FridayFold ⚒️🧪

The answer to this Guess the Gem is fire opal. Opal is not a mineral, it’s actually a mineraloid!! #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem Tuesday!! What do you think these gems are? Hint: it’s made up of spheres. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Fluorite crystal looking as cool as ice. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Just a beautiful fold!! I hope even non-geologists can appreciate the beauty of what pressure can do to a rock. #FoldFriday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The answer to this Guess the Gem is kornerupine!! Prismatine has been established as a separate mineral with a different chemical composition. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Another Guess the Gem !! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: also known as prismatine. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Fiery topaz from Minas Gerais, Brazil!! Helped by some dramatic lighting. The region is known for its pegmatites, a rock type made of large crystals that can sometimes get massive!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Orbicular granite

This Megarachne may not actually be a spider, but my spidey senses are still pretty scared of it. #FossilFriday⚒️🧪

Been looking for her and her husband’s mineral collection, if anyone has any info. #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

This is a skull of one of the biggest duck-billed dinosaur species, Edmontosaurus regalis. #FossilFriday⚒️🧪🦖

The answer to this Guess the Gem is spinel!! This one was part of the Treasury of Saint-Denis in France. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Kīlauea is erupting! 🌋 Here’s a link to one of the three @USGS live cams - enjoy! www.youtube.com/live/tk0tfYD...

Guess the Gem time!! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: in the past gems of this mineral were called rubies, though now the term refers to corundum. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Great little crystal of bright orange scheelite. It would be surprisingly heavy if you held it due to the tungsten in this mineral. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation: Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.

Want to visit Siccar Point but can’t get out or it’s too far away? @callanbentley.bsky.social has made this amazing online field-guide, including gigapan images and some fantastic virtual outcrops that you can explore in 3D. Check it out! opengeology.org/historicalge...

The skull of a giant sloth, Megatherium americanum, from South America. This species went extinct, along with most other megafauna, in the Late Pleistocene Extinction Event thought to be caused by humans and changes in the climate. #FossilFriday

The answer is topaz!! It’s a mineral that can be a few different colours. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think these two gems are? Hint: the blue one is irradiated and heated to get that colour. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Have you ever heard of this mineral? Pachnolite was discovered in Greenland and the name translates to frost stone, which is a very cool name. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The metamorphic mineral staurolite with its distinctive penetration twinning forming a cross. It’s positively delightful!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

As cool and cute as sabre-toothed tigers are, at least I don’t have to fear staring down the maw of Smilodon populator these days. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

Oh my gosh. These are both super cool. Ilmenite is amazing, and I love titanium...but I think I'm gonna vote for the super unusual #Jadarite, which is a lithium borate.

We're Team #Ilmenite today in the #OreCup! Not only did it enable Bob Ross's happy little clouds, it also may have helped flip the Moon's mantle. So versatile! 🔭🧪🌕 eos.org/articles/the...

Ah yes!! Another bacon specimen!! This time it’s banded aragonite. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The answer is the iron ore hematite!! A streak is when you rub a mineral on a slightly rough surface to see what colour the powder left behind is. The streak helps identify the mineral, as it might be different than the colour of the specimen. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Another Tuesday Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think these gems are? Hint: their streak would be red. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎