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 ⚒️🧪💎

Another bright mineral!! The element sulphur makes these beautiful crystals. Be careful, sometimes the warmth of your hand can cause these sensitive crystals to crack. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

When first described, the perceived agility of the theropod Deinonychus antirrhopus helped catalyze the idea that dinosaurs were not as slow moving as previously thought. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

The answer to this Guess the Gem is peridot!! This is a variety of the mineral group olivine, frequently found in basalts (and found in some meteorites!). #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Another Guess the Gem for you!! What mineral or variety do you think this gem is? Hint: this is the gem variety of a mineral commonly found in my favourite type of rock: volcanic. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

The most delectable rhodochrosite!! Bright minerals make me very happy!! From bright butterfly wings to the plumage of birds of paradise, nature is a tapestry of rich colours. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Skull of the Early Triassic amphibian Thoosuchus jakovlevi. Lots of surface texture preserved on it!! #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

The answer is tanzanite!! It’s a mineral only found in one area of Tanzania and it shows trichroism. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Another Guess the Gem for this week!! What mineral do you think these gems are? Hint: its colour depends on which side of the crystal you are looking at. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Some beautiful spherical ferrian turquoise, also known by the variety names henwoodite or rashleighite. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The fierce carnivore Inostrancevia is one of the species of synapsids that went extinct in the Great Dying, known as the Permian-Triassic Extinction event. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

The answer is diopside!! Asterism is when inclusions (or sometimes twinning) cause refraction or reflection to concentrate light into a star shape. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem time!! What mineral do you think this gem with asterism is? Hint: sometimes called jasper or emerald, it is a different mineral. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

It’s Geodiversity Day & Mineral Monday!! So I wanted to show you a rare mineral called carletonite, which is usually bright blue but seen here with a pink zonation. It was discovered here in Canada, at the mineral species rich Mont Saint-Hilaire. #GeodiversityDay #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

A herbivorous archosaur, Trilophosaurus buettneri, which if you look closely at its jaws has no teeth at the front of its mouth. It might have had some sort of beak. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

If you like colourful minerals, check out crocoite!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

This pterosaur species, Scaphognathus crassirostris, was first described all the way back in 1831! Look at the teeth!! #FossilFriday⚒️🧪

This chalcedony is so beautiful!! It looks like a modern art sculpture or something swept up in the wind. How does this form? #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Real skull of Sue the T. rex!! Did you know the one on the full display is a cast that removed the distortion due to crushing that we see here. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

One of the coolest hematite specimens I have ever seen, it’s wider than my hand!! It’s from Parkside, Cumbria, UK. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Cool fossil crab (Avitelmessus grapsoideus) with a lot of detail preserved. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖🦀