Since kyanite made it to the final of Mineral Cup, I decided to contribute. Vote kyanite!
Not only is kyanite gorgeous, it's also a key metamorphic index mineral and thus one of my favourite minerals to find. Here are a few examples I've come across.
See alt text for details
#MinCup25 #kyanite
01.10.2025 11:43 β π 21 π 13 π¬ 1 π 0
Iβm very excited that #tugtupite made it to the finals but can it do this? Folded #kyanite in a high-pressure quartzite, western TΓΌrkiye. #MinCup25
01.10.2025 01:23 β π 38 π 10 π¬ 0 π 0
A single crystal of blue kyanite. This crystal contains kinks, visible as lines within the crystal, and are the result of deformation. Some white quartz matrix is visible in the background.
Two blades of blue kyanite in a garnet-phengite-quartz rock. The phengite is visible as silvery shimmering patches, the graphite is greyish, and the few garnet are small red-brown roundish crystals mostly in the left of the specimen.
A blue-white kyanite-quartz lens in an outcrop of gray graphitic schist. A camera case in the bottom of the image provides a rough scale.
Close-up of a white-gray schist outcrop containing abundant garnet (orange circular crystals), a few blue kyanite crystals, and plenty of white quartz and silvery mica. The metal spike in the left of the image is the tip of a rock hammer.
Some bonus #kyanite pictures #MinCup25
01.10.2025 12:01 β π 8 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
Since kyanite made it to the final of Mineral Cup, I decided to contribute. Vote kyanite!
Not only is kyanite gorgeous, it's also a key metamorphic index mineral and thus one of my favourite minerals to find. Here are a few examples I've come across.
See alt text for details
#MinCup25 #kyanite
01.10.2025 11:43 β π 21 π 13 π¬ 1 π 0
Thin Section Thursday!
A fractured olivine (~3 mm) in basalt. It shows undulatory extinction suggestive of plastic deformation, implying that the grain is a xenocryst entrained from surrounding peridotites. Thanks @tectonic_city. #thinsectionthursday #olivine @tectonic_city @officialcsusbgeology
14.08.2025 12:22 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
I have had relatively little to share, as of late. Hope to become more active in the future, though.
24.07.2025 11:04 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
I always knew in theory that a speleothem is a sedimentary rock, but I've never seen a cross-bedded stalactite before π
15.07.2025 12:40 β π 34 π 10 π¬ 7 π 1
π¨ Thu 17 July: webinar at 12 noon CEST! π¨Join Lotta Ternieten for her journey to groundbreaking findings on the early transformation of iron released from hydrothermal vents at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. πβοΈ
π Register and find out how we can help you! β events.teams.microsoft.com/event/893d39...
14.07.2025 15:17 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
Lithospheric Unzipping Explaining Hot Orogenesis During Continental Subduction
Really happy with this paper with my buddies Tom & Carl. Started with online discussions during Covid lockdowns and is now published in Tectonics:
"Lithospheric Unzipping Explaining Hot Orogenesis During
Continental Subduction"
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
07.07.2025 09:54 β π 2 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
Exciting news! Our new paper, "Carbonation and deformation of oceanic serpentinites in the Elba subduction channel: Evidence for fluid-rock interaction at seismogenic depth," is now #OpenAccess in Earth and Planetary Scientific Letters! βοΈ
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
18.06.2025 09:54 β π 8 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0
Gorgeous! Is that a sheared coronitic granulite?
15.05.2025 12:55 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Our latest research is hot off the press! βοΈ
We've captured amazing footage of #Hydrogen gas moving through #Rock in real-time - think of it like making a movie of something that normally happens deep underground where no one can see it.
Article link: doi.org/10.1016/j.jc...
08.05.2025 09:13 β π 20 π 5 π¬ 2 π 1
A three-dimenisonal graph showing a yellowish surface, representing the topography of a mineral grain. In the center is a crater-like feature, an indent that is the result of a nanoindentation experiment. The topography map is 15 micrometers by 15 micrometers, and the topography is in the order of 10s to ~100 nanometers.
Bit of an unusual #ThinSectionThursday
Over the past weeks, I've been busy collecting data with the Triboindenter, performing deformation experiments on grains in thin sections. See below a topography 3D model of one of these indents (looks like a crater), also collected with the indenter.
01.05.2025 15:01 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Amidst all terrible news, I am sad that here it is not better. Today the VU Amsterdam announced they'll cut Earth Sciences, and fire 39 staff. 130 students are left to figure out how to finish, and an unknown number of PhDs lose their supervisors. My heart goes out to my colleagues π³π₯
03.04.2025 19:42 β π 91 π 34 π¬ 2 π 5
Europa heeft geologen en milieuwetenschappers nodig, terwijl Nederland juist daarin snijdt. Op dit moment wordt 3% van de 'Critical Raw Materials' die Europa nodig heeft, hier gewonnen. De EU wil dat in de komende vijf jaar verdrievoudigen, en wel volgens Europese standaarden. Dat vergt kennis 1/n
25.03.2025 07:57 β π 5 π 4 π¬ 1 π 0
Brilliant, congratulations!
12.03.2025 08:47 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
The Northeast of Corsica is part of the Alpine orogeny, and is similar to the "Schistes Lustres" of the Alps. There's a lot of blueschist and eclogite facies rocks there, including peridotite. Let me know if you'd like some literature.
13.02.2025 08:20 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Check out Stephen (et al.)'s latest paper!
04.02.2025 14:26 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
A black Outer Hebrides dyke cuts across the pre-existing foliation in grey Archaean Lewisian gneiss. Thin apophysis (offshoot) and the hinge zone of the folded dyke exhibit near perpendicular angular discordance to the foliation.
These rocks were folded during Laxfordian deformation and strong flattening in the limbs of the folds brought the contact of the dyke and the foliation into concordance.
This outcrop is located west of the village of Rhenigidale, Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides.
A beautiful example of an Outer Hebrides dyke cutting the foliation in Archaean #Lewisian gneiss. Although folded by later Laxfordian deformation both the dyke and a thin apophysis exhibit near perpendicular angular discordance in the fold hinge, becoming concordant in the limbs.
Isle of Harris. βοΈπ§ͺ
03.02.2025 12:11 β π 44 π 4 π¬ 1 π 0
Same here from the Netherlands last night
01.02.2025 16:32 β π 5 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Tall grey cliffs being battered by a rough sea. Older grey Lewisian gneisses and black amphibolites are intruded by salmon-pink granitic pegmatites and aplites of Late-Laxfordian age.
The cliffs are located near the Mangersta bothy on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
My OH is a keen walker and getting quite good at photographing interesting geological locations. This has gone to the top of my Spring excursion list.
Pink #Laxfordian granitic intrusions invading #Lewisian gneisses and amphibolites.
Mangersta, #IsleofLewis βοΈπ§ͺ
23.01.2025 12:46 β π 65 π 11 π¬ 1 π 0
I am reaching out to the #geoscience community - I need help.
My MSc thesis was curtailed due to being unable to even access the building @ my previous universityβΏοΈ they provided no alternative.
Theyβve taken no responsibility for this #discrimination after I submitted an appeal.
16.01.2025 10:52 β π 11 π 8 π¬ 4 π 2
Pyroxene with exsolution lamellae in a gabbro from Susa, Yamaguchi, Japan.
02.01.2025 10:47 β π 17 π 4 π¬ 0 π 0
A grayscale image taken with the backscattered electron detector of a scanning electron microscope. The image consists of various blobs of dark and bright grays with occasionally lines and dots throughout the blobs. Each brightness level corresponds to a mineral, in this case Fe-Ti-oxides and garnet. On the left-hand side is a large bright grain of Ti-magnetite with irregular lines of intermediate gray, Mn-ilmenite. On the right-hand side is a darker gray grain with white speckles and a few straight white lines, this is a grain of rutile with ilmenite inside.
A zoomed-out version of the previous image; there is more dark grey (garnet) surrounding the Fe-Ti-oxides
Also metamorphic rocks can have really cool Fe-Ti oxides! I found this cluster with intergrowths of Ti-magnetite and Mn-ilmenite (white & grey lines resp.), and rutile with non-Mn-ilmenite exsolution (grey & white lines resp.), in garnetite from Lago di Cignana.
19.12.2024 08:41 β π 4 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
A grayscale image taken with the backscattered electron detector of a scanning electron microscope. The image consists of various blobs of dark and bright grays with occasionally lines and dots throughout the blobs. Each brightness level corresponds to a mineral, in this case Fe-Ti-oxides and garnet. On the left-hand side is a large bright grain of Ti-magnetite with irregular lines of intermediate gray, Mn-ilmenite. On the right-hand side is a darker gray grain with white speckles and a few straight white lines, this is a grain of rutile with ilmenite inside.
A zoomed-out version of the previous image; there is more dark grey (garnet) surrounding the Fe-Ti-oxides
Also metamorphic rocks can have really cool Fe-Ti oxides! I found this cluster with intergrowths of Ti-magnetite and Mn-ilmenite (white & grey lines resp.), and rutile with non-Mn-ilmenite exsolution (grey & white lines resp.), in garnetite from Lago di Cignana.
19.12.2024 08:41 β π 4 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
Watch these snowflake-like dendritic clinopyroxenes twinkle as this thin section is rotated in cross-polarised light!βοΈβοΈ This is a rare volcanic rock called komatiite, from Gorgona. Credit: Charlie Gordon. #ThinSectionTuesday #Petrology #Mineralogy
17.12.2024 09:25 β π 32 π 7 π¬ 0 π 2
Yeah you got quite lucky then! Very nice
16.12.2024 16:43 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Stunning!
16.12.2024 13:40 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Fascinating stuff! I still feel like pressure solution is underrated in metamorphic systems so it's nice to see more work about it.
04.12.2024 12:32 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Ah yeah that'll explain it! I'm sure we'll cross paths soon enough.
03.12.2024 08:25 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Resource geologist based in TromsΓΈ, northern Norway.
Geology tragic, thermochronology devotee, fission track dating, planets. Professor Emeritus, FAA https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/16040-andy-gleadow
Metamorphic petrologist who also does some tectonics and teaches mineralogy. I love rocks and minerals and field work. Also reading, art, and cats.
Nuts about geology and history, the arts and the natural world especially animals. π
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Opinions are my own.
Geologist, UAS pilot, UND masters student, working as environmental scientist with the Nuclear Navy. Opinions are my own
Minding all the gaps in the rock record
PhD candidate @ Utrecht University
Love cookies, bouldering & math (no particular order)
He/Him
Founded in 1919, the MSAβs mission is to diligently work on the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, petrology, and promotion of their uses in other sciences, industry, and the arts. Website: msaweb.org
Retired palaeontologist and museum curator, admirer of arthropods, and all 'round nature nerd. Fiercely Canadian. Staunchly antifascist. π¨π¦
Curious Geologist. PhD Student @ MIT. European. Nonconformist. Critical Thinker. Outdoors, Arts and Culinary. Formerly ETH Zurich, LMU & TU Munich.
Geologist goes swimming: working on natural and enhanced silicate weathering @UUEarthSciences | interested in silicon-carbon coupling, climate change impacts and stable isotopes
Mechanical designer & technical draftsman by profession/education π Specializing in stainless steel hygienic processing equipment for foodπ§, beverageπΊ, and pharmaπ applications (tanks, vessels, skidded equipment). Wisconsin. He/Him. #STEM
Quantitative Ecologist focused on salmon habitat at the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission | Former Assistant Professor studying Microbial Ecology / Evolutionary Biology / Bioinformatics | merdemicrobes.org | thecnidaegritty.org/iNatle/
Geophysicist at UT Austin working on the connections between planetary interior and surface systems. The physics of plate tectonics, from earthquakes to global mantle convection. Makes maps.
Palaeoecologist and biogeographer at the University of Tasmania in lutruwita | Alpine ecology | Fire regimes | Palynology |
Geoscientist/canine caretaker. UAF alum. Based in Alaska
Seismology/Volcanology/Meteorology/Astronomy/Space Weather, & Science Communication
Sometimes successful at photography
See my starter packs for more science!
The Faculty of Geosciences has the ambition to be a global trailblazer in education and research with regard to our Earth system and sustainability, from the local to the global scale. https://www.uu.nl/geo
Posts in Dutch and English
Assistant professor in Computational Geodynamics, Utrecht University. Also: bass player
assistant professor | biogeochemistry | carbon | enhanced rock weathering | soils & oceans | Dutch & English | enjoys ππ, π°, ποΈ, π & π | views my own