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Beiträge, die mit mincup23 getaggt sind


Today I'm voting for bischofite because it's Permian sea salt evaporate, which is pretty cool.

No specific #folklore for it, but it reminded me of a Colombian folktale about a boy who carries salt for a chief, and gets caught in a rain that washes he salt away. The boy prays to the god Bochica, who takes him on a journey, shows him the hidden riches under the earh, and on a beach teaches him how to create salt pans to collect sea salt.

#MinCup23 #folktales


Cacoxenite is associated with iron ore but its phosphorus content lessen smelted iron quality (& so its name means “evil guest”).

As marine geophysicist I vote Bischofite the Permian evaporite sea salt, because it comes from the sea - and also because it’s used in compresses to treat arthritis.
#MinCup23
Bischofite  via Wikipedia: a large white salty crystal on a black background
Cacoxenite crystals via Wikipedia. They look like stiff crystal yellow pompoms, balls of radiating pin like shiny yellow points


Fun fact for today's #MinCup23: Galena was Mineral of the Year in Hungary in 2019!

I don't have a folktale for it specifically, but it is a lead ore, so let me introduce you to one of my favorite Hungarian folktale villains:

The Lead Monk

Sometimes also called "Snotty Lead Monk" (🤷‍♀️ ), this supernatural entity can cover the landscape with lead, has superhuman strength, and can turn people into stone. It would make a great #DnD villain.

More here:

http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2018/04/l-is-for-lead-monk-wtf-hungary-weird.html

#folklore #folktales


History meets the future for #MinCup23 Round 1 Match 13.

Mineral lab classic and reliable lead ore #Galena is against the structurally-intriguing #Perovskite and all its possibilities.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-12

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-12


#MinCup23 Calcite vs opal. Got to be calcite: an amazing mineral, which can crystallize directly from magmas, from almost every kind of fluid, and in living plants and animals.

And amazingly useful as a geochemical and isotopic tracer of processes and time.

And best of all, an almost unparalleled complexity in crystal forms. In Goldschmidt's Atlas der Krystallformen, plates 3 to155 *just cover calcite* - this is just one of them🤩 🤯 🥰
#Geology #Mineralogy #Calcite
A scanned image of a crystallography book from 1913, with two pages of the most beautiful line drawings of extremely complicated geometric crystal forms.


There is a legend about the origin of opals from the Wanggumara people in Australia. It tells of a pelican who undertakes a dangerous journey, carrying water in its beak, hoping to find a place where it turns to gold. However, the pelican is mortally wounded on the way; the water spills and turns to gold, and the pelican's blood turns into fire opals.

More here
http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2022/04/f-is-for-fire-opals-gemstone-folklore.html

#MinCup23 #folklore #opal


As for opals

The Holy Roman Emperor's crown used to have a big white opal, the Orphan Stone. The 12th century German romance of Duke Ernst tells the origins of the stone.

Ernst, stepson of the emperor, is exiled from his home and heads to the Holy Land. On the way he gets lost, and goes through a series of Sindbad-like adventures, featuring bird-headed people, giants, griffins, and a Magnetic Mountain. He finds the opal in a magic cave.

More here
http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2022/04/w-is-for-weise-stone-gemstone-folklore.html

#MinCup23 #folklore


Match 11 of #MinCup23 today and this will be a tough one: shiny mineraloid #opal against good, old bubbling #calcite. Opal has the looks but I prefer a crystal structure... See some fabulous examples of #calcite to convince you...

#Calcite can form very well-defined crystals but sometimes also looks a bit plain and beige. All samples from mineral exhibition at Uni Münster.
Bis clear calcite crystals in a Brown substrate
Large, beige calcite crystal
Large, slightly purple calcite crystal


Today's #MinCup23 match is calcite vs opal. This'll be a thread.

Calcite reminds me of a story from Costa Rica. A chief called Nandayure owned a magic wand that could make disappear anything that contained calcium. One day he saw his people dancing, wearing lots of white body paint, and grew so angry at the decorations he aimed the wand at them. You know what else has calcium? Bones. Oops.
(He managed to reverse the spell by destroying the wand)
#folklore #folktales #minerals #gemstones #thread


After the deadheat of last match, we can all relax for #MinCup23 Round 1 Match 11 where… oh no, it’s two favourites!

#Calcite vs #Opal

One fights on, the other is eliminated for 2024. Eek!!

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-11

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-11


Today for #MinCup23 I'm voting ammineite because guano mineral 😆 I got no folklore for it, even though I vaguely remember reading a bat guano folktale at some point... couldn't locate it. Maybe for the next round.


This round of #MinCup23 is close! As of 09/10/2023 19:15:37 GMT, #Adamite is leading #Ammineite by 1 VOTE, and it’s likely to flip again within minutes.

We’ve hovered near a tie long enough to send the admins diving into code to check & recheck tallies & charts and into site traffic to monitor potential ballot-stuffing, but the tie is real!

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-10

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-10


Today's #MinCup23 match is mercury vs sepiolite.

The mercury mines in Idrija, Slovenia have a legend about a mine gnome called the perkomandelj. In one story a miner encounters it alone in a shaft, and they work side by side for a whole month without a word. At the end of the month the miner decides to split his pay evenly with he gnome, down to cutting the last coin in half.
The perkomandelj rewards him for his fairness (and silence) with all the money, and good fortune.

#folklore #folktales


#MinCup23 Round 1 Match 9 is a battle of archaic household items with thermometer quicksilver vs meerschaum tobacco pipes. Do you pick elemental #Mercury or clay #Sepiolite?

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-9

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-9


#MinCup23 is the hashtag to follow this month for geologists geeking out about their favourite minerals. Amateurs, schoolkids, students and professors are all there. This is where science communication on social media really shines.


The Magic Ruby on the Snake's Head is a tale from Thailand. It tells about a magician that finds out that he can enchant a snake, and make it grow a priceless ruby on its head in 1000 years. The magician doesn't survive that long, but the snake grows into a giant man-eating monster.

Later a princess declares she wants the ruby for her necklace (to inspire people to rid the land of the monster). A prince finds a way to kill the monster and take the gem.

#folktales
#folklore
#MinCup23
#thread


Another exciting folktale is The Ruby Prince from the Punjab.

In this one, a king receives a priceless ruby that turns into a baby boy in the queen's treasure chest. The Ruby Prince kills a monster and wins a wife, but tells her never to ask where he came from. When she inevitably does, he disappears.

She later finds out that he lives with the King of Snakes now. She takes dance lessons, enchants the king with her dance, and wins her husband back.

#folktales #folklore #MinCup23 #thread


By the way, I blogged about the Myanmar legend about the origin of rubies here:
http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2020/11/storyspotting-rubies-and-royalty-crown.html

This is also the origin story of the (in)famous Mogok ruby mines. It features a Naga princess who falls in love with the Sun, and three magic eggs, one of which bursts in Mogok and fills the land with rubies.

#folklore #folktales #MinCup23 #thread #StorySpotting


In another folktale from India a clever turtle saves a goose from a fowler with rubies and trickery. He offers the man a ruby for the goose. The man asks for two rubies. The turtle brings a second ruby from his pond, but then says "let me see that first one, to make sure they match."

In the meantime, the goose gets away, and the turtle dives into the pond with both rubies.

#folklore #folktales #MinCup23 #thread


In a folktale from Simla, a man is exiled with is father and 4 wives. The youngest hides some valuable rubies in bread. Later she gives one to her father-in-law to sell, but he falls into a greedy merchant's trap - and so does his son.

The woman then dresses up as a policeman and joins the king's forces. She defeats a monster, earns favor, and solves the case of the men's disappearance, bringing justice to the evil merchant.

#thread #folktales #folklore #MinCup23


One of my favorite ruby stories is a legend recorded by King Sancho IV of Spain. It tells about an English king who gets lost while hunting in the winter. He encounters a naked beggar, takes pity on him, dresses him in his own clothes, and carries him to shelter.

The grateful beggar asks the king to blow his nose. When the king does, a ruby larger than a hen's egg falls into the handkerchief: a magical (though a bit gross) reward for the king's kindness.

#folklore #folktales #MinCup23 #thread


There is a Gujarati folktale about four friends that go out to seek their fortune. They accidentally eat magic mangoes that determine their fate: one of them becomes king, one can laugh sapphires and cry pearls, and one goes to prison.

The king and his sapphire-laughing minister betray the two other friends. Those two take revenge with the help of the fourth lucky fruit. In the end the minister is cursed like Midas: whatever he tries to eat turns into sapphires.

#folklore #folktales #MinCup23


Today's #MinCup23 match is corundum vs lawsonite.

*Cracks knuckles*

I'm voting corundum, because folklore (and because as a kid I had a book on gemstones, and padparadscha seemed so magical).

I'm going to make this a thread, because rubies and sapphires figure into a whole bunch of tales and legends.

🧵

#folklore #folktales #mythology #gems #minerals #thread #corundum


It’s a hard-core battle for #MinCup23 Round 1 Match 8:
the industrial sweetheart and standard for Mohs hardness 9 #Corundum grinds against the index mineral for high pressures and low temperatures #Lawsonite. Both are tough, but only one hard rocker can survive this battle!

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-8

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-8


So, #Lawsonite vs #Corundum, tough call. It should be easy: rubies, sapphires, abrasives, OH MY! Big bad corundum, it sticks out in the crowd! So beautiful! Poor lawsonite doesn't stand a chance.... Well, I'm going to give it love. Ever seen lawsonite in thin section? Check it out below. Have ever seen something so beautiful? A kaleidoscope can't touch this, plus it's valuable scientifically in determining the metamorphic regimes, tectonic, typically. #TeamLawsonite #mincup23
A kaleidoscope of orange, red, yellow, white, deep blue and red, squarish, crystals, flat like a stained glass. Varying sizes and shapes in a beautiful chaotic pattern. But with traces of symmetry definable.


So what happens after #MinCup23 ends?... What's gonna fill the "fun Mastodon voting campaign in a scientific field" shaped hole in my heart?

Is there like a Moth Cup? Or a Nudibranch Cup?...

#science


There was a very interesting essay on #vivianite in Nature Geoscience recently (Slomp 2023). Vivianite could be used to trap excess P in wastewater, preventing it from causing environmental damage in coastal areas, thereby improving water quality for marine creatures. Vivianite formed in wastewater could be extracted and used in agriculture, “nicely closing the terrestrial phosphorus cycle”. Minerals saving the world! #MinCup23


Don't have any folklore for today's #MinCup23 match, but I am voting cavansite because I have a very nice little specimen of it at home.

#minerals


#Vivianite I had to look up last year. It is a blue-green hydrated iron phosphate (Fe2(+II)[PO4]2 x 8H2O) with monoclinic crystal structure and acicular or fibrous aggregates.

But look at this 🤩: #Vivianite pseudomorph after shell from Kerch, Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine (size: 5.6 × 4.6 × 2.7 cm). #MinCup23

📷 Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com


Ready for a pair of rare and delicate beauties in #MinCup23 Round 1 Match 7?

It’s ever-darkening #Vivianite vs vanadium-blue #Cavansite!

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-7

Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-7


One of the coolest things about #Goethite is that it frequently replaces other minerals taking on their shapes as a psuedomorph. Below is Goethite after Marcasite, Goethite after Selenite, Goethite after pyrite iron cross twins, and a lovely gothy Goethite crystal spray just for fun. #MinCup23
Goethite after Pyrite from Minerals.net
Geothite after Selenite from Minerals.net
Goethite sprays of lustrous crystals - here, to almost 4 cm in length. From Wikipedia
Goethite after Pyrite Iron Cross Twins from Fossil Era


I don't have anything folkloric to say about today's #MinCup23 match, but they are both featured in the Telluric Tarot by Lunaria Gold (my favorite deck ever).

Crocoite is 7 of Wands, dioptase is Page of Cups.

#tarot #minerals #art #flowers
Photo of two colorful tarot cards. The one on the left features large green-blue dioptase crystals surrounded by lilies of the valley. The one on the right has spiky red crocoite crystals surrounded by yellow furze flowers.


I use it as a way to learn about minerals and then I vote for the one that appeals to me most. If I can't decide, I vote for the one with fewest votes already. The whole game, the talking about it and the learning and other people's reasons for their votes, are why I participate. #mincup23


To everybody following #MinCup23
It's supposed to be fun and you don't have to know anything about minerals to participate. If your favorite color is blue, vote for the blue mineral. If you like the shape or the name or if it reminds you of your favorite cartoon, band (insert anything here), vote for it!
Some of us geek out a bit about mineral details (seems like a lot of us are on Mastodon lol) but we all love to hear what motivated you to pick a mineral. Silliness is also welcome!


Rare and fragile #dioptase faces off against spiky and toxic #Crocoite Precious or deadly, choose your poison. You have 23.5 hours to campaign, recruit people to back your champion, and vote. #MinCup23
Brilliant green dioptase from Wikimedia.
Irregular orange needles of crocoite from Wikimedia.


Today's #MinCup23 match is stibnite vs sodalite.

Stibnite is also known as kohl, used as an eyeliner since Ancient Egypt.

There in an Egyptian folktale where a dervish puts magic kohl on the eyes of a young man, rendering him invisible so he can sneak into the king's palace to see a princess.

A wily old woman catches the trespasser by burning buffalo dung - the rancid smoke makes the guy tear up, and the tears wash the magic kohl from his eyes. Oops.

#folktales #folklore #minerals