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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The Guess the Gem answer is topaz!! It can be naturally blue, as well as other colours, but there are artificial methods to get blue too. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Guess the Gem time!! What mineral do you think these gems are? Hint: the blue colour is from irradiation on the left and cobalt diffusion on the right. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Two green gems in individual white plastic gem cases on white foam with the edges of other cases seen around them. They are mixed cut with the left one being bluer. At the Hunterian.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A cute little rhomb of rhodochrosite, a shape you see in other minerals with a similar crystal structure. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of opaque pink rhomb of rhodochrosite on a base of rock composed of white quartz crystals and pyrite cubes. It sits on a wood background. At the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

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Reposted by Erika Anderson

Bill Minarik @silicatefondue.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Quartz veins in slate show the deformation and material transport accompanying the growth of the Appalachians. #MinCup26 #Quartz #Quebec #Gaspésie

White quartz veins in a black slate. Several generations of veins show cross-cutting relationships and deformation within the rock. Siluro-Devonian Appalachians, Gaspe Penninsula, Quebec

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A pretty little bivalve shell of the Pecten genus from Dublin. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

Fossil shell of a bivalve that has a rounded edge that then has ridges going to a central point on the opposite outer edge. The rock is grey on a beige background with a label with number 9 next to it. At the National Museum of Ireland.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A really cool massive halite crystal with a fluid inclusion!! Halite is a Mineral Cup favourite this year. #MineralMonday #MinCup26 #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Layers of bright yellow sulphur and crystals of celestine. It looks like a (non-edible) piece of cake! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen showing four layers in a wedge shape: bright yellow sulphur on the bottom and second from the top, and grey celestine in the second from bottom and top. The top is paler crystals of celestine with a bit of massive sulphur. A blue nitrile hand holds it up on a grey background. At the Hunterian.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Triceratops horridus, a lot of people’s favourite dinosaur. Does everyone have a favourite? #FossilFriday⚒️🧪

Amounted Triceratops cast seen from the shoulders up showing its long horns. The lighting around it is purple. At Telus Spark.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The Guess the Gem answer is olivine!! It’s a mineral group that has the mineral species forsterite and fayalite. The gem variety is peridot. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Another Mineral Cup Guess the Gem!! What mineral or group do you think these gems are? Hint: it’s the first winner. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky #MinCup26 ⚒️🧪💎

Two green gems on a black background. On the bottom left is a mixed cut gem and the top right is an octagonal step cut gem with the label 23 below it. At the Natural History Museum London.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Stress-free appreciation for cute little puffballs of okenite, no need to think about picking a favourite and voting since this mineral isn’t in this year’s Mineral Cup. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of grey rock with a cavity down the middle with green crystals and two white balls of thin okenite needles. Sits on a frosted plinth on a glass shelf off a grey wall. At the Royal Ontario Museum.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The skull of one of the largest dinosaurs, Patagotitan!! A close up look at what is at the top of a very long neck. #FossilFriday⚒️🧪🦕

A Patagotitan skull mounted on a white platform in a square with the edges lit up in white. The lighting around it is purple. At the Natural History Museum in London.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If you are attending SPNHC and missed my talk on using lessons from the past to curate the Anthropocene and the panel for the session, check out the recording, the discussion was great!! #GeoscienceBluesky #SPNHC2026 ⚒️🧪

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Guess the Gem answer is andalusite!! It’s a mineral that has the variety chiastolite that has inclusions that form a cross. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky #MinCup26 ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

A Mineral Cup Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think these gems are? Hint: it’s a very recent Mineral Cup challenger. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky #MinCup26 ⚒️🧪💎

Three green gems in a row on a grey background with the edge of a white label below. The middle is a large ovalish cut gem with a dark zone in the middle. The two on either side are rectangular with brownish zones at the corners. They are both colourless round brilliant cut gems and the left is bigger. At the Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I present to you on this Mineral Monday a very fine crystal of monazite, one of today’s Mineral Cup challengers. This one is from Joaquim Felício, Brazil. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky #MinCup26 ⚒️🧪

Brown crystal of monazite in a tray lined by white foam. At the Canadian Museum of Nature.

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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 6 It's a classic vs a newbie as the most common named mineral in the crust #Quartz is up against an exceedingly-rare sea foam-green mineral discovered just a few years ago #Asagiite. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

Split photo of clear quartz points radiating from a central point, with amethyst purple at some of the tips and cool mint green asagiite in mostly log-shaped crystals, with a few blobby bits.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

As scary as this dude looks, Pachycephalosaurs are herbivorous (well maybe some insects too). #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

Mounted Pachycephalosaur skeleton cast seen from the shoulders up on the left side. You can see the skull dome and spikes around it and small teeth in its mouth. There’s a grey panel and a glass panel behind it. At the Royal Ontario Museum.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A big piece of watermelon tourmaline, a variety of the mineral elbaite. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of a wide specimen of watermelon tourmaline on a frosted plinth in front of a grey background. The crystals are pink on the bottom and the top goth is green. It sits on a grey background. At the Royal Ontario Museum.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The Guess the Gem answer is cubic zirconia!! It’s not a mineral because it’s not naturally occurring, but the mineral with the same chemical composition is baddeleyite. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Guess the Gem time! What do you think these gems are? Hint: it’s a common synthetic. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Two gems in white gem cases on white foam surrounded by the edges of other gem cases. They are both colourless round brilliant cut gems and the left is bigger. At the Hunterian.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

This ball of marcasite is about the size of my hand. Massive!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of small rectangular brownsish gold crystals of marcasite forming a large ball on a bed of white quartz crystals. It sits on a grey background. At the Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Gotta love the lit up Tyrannosaurus rex fossil skeleton!! #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

A mounted T. rex skeleton seen from the shoulders up on the left side with the bones lit up in neon green. At Telus Spark.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Finally got to see the SUE T. rex exhibit that @thomascullen.bsky.social worked on!!! Awesome to see this massive life sized model with dinosaur “lips”. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

Full sized reconstruction of a Tyrannosaurus rex with a small dinosaur in its mouth in the middle of an exhibit room. At Telus Spark.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The Guess the Gem answer is fluorapatite!! It’s in teeth that have been exposed to fluoride which can help prevent tooth decay. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

A Guess the Gem this week!! What mineral or group do you think these gems are? Hint: you can find it in your teeth. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Two gems in white gem cases on white foam surrounded by the edges of other gem cases. The left one is a pale blue gem in the shape of a shield. On the right is a yellow square gem. At the Hunterian.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Okay, sometimes minerals are just sooooooo pretty. This mesolite puffball is pretty perfectly round. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen consisting of thin rods of transparent crystals creating a sphere on white matrix. It sits on a black background. At the Sorbonne.

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Chris Rowan @allochthonous.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

⚒️ We were in New Hampshire last weekend and discovered this gem: Sabbaday Falls cuts down through a basaltic dike intruded into the surrounding granite. A highly effective visual demonstration of these rocks' relative hardness!

View up a narrow stream running down a straight slot canyon, about 1m wide. At the end of the canyon, a waterfall can be seen plunging into a deep blue pool which extends almost to where the picture is taken from, at which point it shallows and runs over a dark black rock, which is very distinct from the white-pink rock that surround the canyon. This black rock can be seen on the right inner wall of the canyon jn front of the waterfall, and also behind the waterfall (if you squint). The waterfall is clearly eroding through a basaltic dike that intrudes the surrounding basalt. Part of another dark basaltic dike can be seen intruding the granite in the right foreground.

View from above the waterfall seen in the first picture. Water is cascading down a granite face into a clear into the linear gash formed by erosion of the basalt dike, which can be seen clearly in its uneroded form, with a granite stringer, on the back wall on the right of the picture.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The fossil skull of a soft shell turtle, Trionyx, from France! They are always pretty neat looking. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

Fossil skull of a soft shell turtle on a red background with labels all around. The skull has a pair of holes near the front snout, a pair in the middle, and a pair in the back with broken off bones at the back. At the Museum national de l’Histoire naturelle.

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Reposted by Erika Anderson

Callan Bentley @callanbentley.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Spectacular crenulated turbidites of the Halifax Formation (Meguma Terrane), Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia. These strata were laid down in the Ordovician in the southern hemisphere and deformed during the Devonian Neoacadian Orogeny, as Meguma accreted to the North America margin. ⚒️

Tan and gray laminated layers of rock are bent into lots of wiggly folds. Pencil for scale.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Well I missed Mineral Monday but I do want to share this awesome halite (salt) with blue colouring. #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of clear cubic halite with dark blue sections, including a section shaped like a triangle made of thin blue lines. At the Musée de Minérologie Paris.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The majestic Gomphotherium, but I’m really interested in the cute tortoise in front of it. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

Fossil of an Gomphotherium which looks like a mastodon above a small tortoise with a very round shell. Another small four legged fossil behind it and a horned skull mounted on a rod. At the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Lovely polished malachite. It was a mineral that was used as green pigment in the past. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of green malachite with lots of sections of concentric banding with lighter and darker green bands. It sits on a frosted plinth that says “Malachite/Malachite” on it. Sits on a glass shelf on a grey background. At the Royal Ontario Museum.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

WOW!! This is one gorgeous emerald crystal. Trace elements give the green colour to this variety of the mineral beryl. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of deep green translucent hexagonal columnar emerald crystal in a dark grey rock and white rock. On a grey background with edges of labels seen behind it. At the Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The Guess the Gem answer is indicolite!! It’s the blueish variety of the mineral elbaite of the tourmaline group. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Guess the Gem time!! What mineral, variety, or group do you think these gems are? Hint: this variety’s name derives from its colour. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Two gems on frosted plinths in front of a grey background. On the bottom left is a rectangular modified step cut that is a deep blue teal. On the top right is a rectangular step cut that is a deep green teal. At the Royal Ontario Museum.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

A lovely disc of fool’s gold which is the mineral pyrite!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Can you see the dragonfly-like insect in this rock? It’s a Mischoptera, a Paleozoic insect!! #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

Fossil of an insect resembling a dragonfly with four thin wings coming off a thin body in a grey rock. One wing is bent at an odd angle. At the Museum national d’Histoire Naturelle.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

The answer to this Guess the Gem is analcime!! This one is from Mont Saint-Hilaire, where massive crystals have been found. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Another Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: it forms a series with pollucite. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Colourless kite step cut gem with some dark inclusions on white paper. At the Canadian Museum of Nature.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Grape chalcedony, made up of quartz and moganite, from Indonesia. Another one that looks like candy, but no eating!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen of numerous small round nodules of pale purple chalcedony on a black background. It resembles really small grapes. There is a label with “Chalcedoine” on it below the specimen. At the Sorbonne.

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Reposted by Erika Anderson

Nigel Monaghan @nigelmonaghan-nh.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Museums hold collections for a reason: “Perhaps, he says, the next big breakthrough in charting our solar system’s deepest history won’t come from exploring some distant world but rather from studying samples of space rocks …from a drawer in a museum.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare...

scientificamerican.com

Scientists found a piece of a lost planet in the Sahara Desert

Hints of high-pressure chemistry within a rare meteorite suggest this fallen space rock comes from a planet gone wrong in the solar system’s early history

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Look at the colours in these opal nodules!! These are in rhyolite, a type of volcanic rock. #MineralMonday (well Mineraloid Monday) #VolcanoMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪🌋

Specimen of round nodules of opal in an orange pink rhyolite rock with some red banding. These nodules are blue, green, and orange with rings around them of opal. It sits in a black background on a wire mount. At the Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris.

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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

When we want to know what the rocks are under our towns, we use a special drill that can collect long cylinders of rock hundreds of feet below the surface. This core, collected under Reading, punched through a fossil layer, scooping up ancient shells and even a beautiful sea urchin! #fossilfriday

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

These skull pieces of Mosasaurus hoffmanni make up the first Mosasaur skull found all the way back in 1780!! #FossilFriday⚒️🧪

Bones of a skull of Mosasaurus hoffmanni embedded in green plaster ima wooden frame. The jaw bones show sharp teeth. At the Natural History Museum in London.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

The answer to the Guess the Gem is padparadscha sapphire!! This is the pink orange variety of sapphire, the more commonly blue variety of the mineral species corundum. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Guess the Gem time!! What mineral or variety do you think this gem is? Hint: this variety is typically associated with the colour blue. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Hexagonal orange pink gem mounted on a thin metal rod on a greige plinth. At the Natural History Museum in London.

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Check out this quartz on chalcopyrite from Cornwall, UK. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Specimen showing a layer of white quartz crystals on the left side of the specimen and on the right bright gold coloured chalcopyrite. It sits in a black background. At the Hunterian.

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Nadine, Hunter of Rocks @nadwgab.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Cumbria, England has some beautiful calcites! 😍 (Vid description: My left hand in a blue nitrile glove slowly rotating a cluster of transparent calcite crystals with some red iron staining on grey hematite) #MineralMonday #minerals

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Erika Anderson @andersonmineral.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

The answer to this Guess the Gem is topaz!! Pink is not as common as other colours of topaz. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

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