I've been falling behind with my #MinCup23 tweets 😬 Today's match is arsenuranospathite vs neptunite and the latter is getting my vote. It's a silicate #mineral named after Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. It's often found together with white natrolite, and they look so good together! Here's one on display in the NHM London

Vote for your favourite here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-14

Amethyst is a purple variety of quartz whose colour is caused by iron replacing silicon and then exposure to gamma radiation. Its name comes from the Greek amethystos (not drunk) - it was thought that amethyst could cure drunkenness 🥴 #TeamQuartz #MinCup23 #minerals #mineral @MineralCup 10/?

Quartz often contains inclusions of other minerals, such as this rutilated quartz glowing in the morning sunshine in the NHM London Mineral Gallery 🌟

Support quartz and vote for it here: https://mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

#TeamQuartz #MinCup23 #mineral #minerals @MineralCup 9/?

This website provides a great summary of how quartz clocks work: http://explainthatstuff.com/quartzclockwatch.html

So remember, whenever you check the time, you should thank the tiny little quartz crystal vibrating thousands of times a second!

Show your appreciation for quartz by voting here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

#TeamQuartz #MinCup23 #minerals #mineral 8/?

A quartz oscillator is used to regulate time inside most watches and clocks. This is because quartz is piezoelectric, which means that when it’s squeezed, it generates an electric current. This also works the other way round too: when an electric current passes through it, it vibrates at a certain frequency. The quartz oscillator is circled in the picture below

Original photo © Garitzko: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Armbanduhr_Rueckseite.jpg
#TeamQuartz #MinCup23 #minerals #mineral @MineralCup 6/?

Just look at all the detail you can carve into quartz! This is the Lothair Crystal, a 11.5cm wide piece of rock crystal engraved with scenes from a biblical story

© Ashley Van Haeften: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothair_Crystal

Make sure you vote for quartz here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

#TeamQuartz #MinCup23 #minerals #mineral @MineralCup 5/?

Art lovers! Vote quartz! There's a long history of quartz being carved into beautiful pieces.

Have you ever visited a museum or gallery and seen something carved out of rock crystal? Well that's just a colourless variety of quartz. This is a Fatimid (#Egyptian) jug carved from quartz, late 10th to early 11th century

Photo © Dallas Museum of Art

#TeamQuartz #MinCup23 #art #minerals #mineral @MineralCup 4/?

I know many people are upset ice didn't make it into #MinCup23. Well, why not vote #TeamQuartz? The oldest name for quartz is the Greek word κρύσταλλος (kristallos) which was first used 300-325 BCE. Kristallos means cold - it was believed that crystals were a type of ice that couldn't melt because it was made by the gods ❄❄❄

Vote for quartz here! https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

#geology #mineral #minerals @MineralCup 3/?

A fact for the #etymology nerds! The word quartz describes one of its physical properties. It comes from the German word "Quarz" which has origins in various Slavic words for "hard" (e.g., Czech "tvrdý", Polish "twardy", Serbian/Croatian "tvrd"). Quartz is a pretty hard mineral as it's 7 on the Mohs hardness scale

#mineral #minerals #MinCup23 #TeamQuartz @MineralCup 2/?

Cinnabar has a slight lead over quartz and I'm not happy about that! This is the start of a *long* thread for #TeamQuartz which I'll be updating throughout the day.

Quartz is my all time favourite mineral. Despite its simple formula (SiO2), it can be found in a variety of colours and morphologies 1/?

Vote for quartz here: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-2

#MinCup23 #minerals #mineral #quartz @MineralCup