iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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🌌Forebodings of Éskʷətayit @joxter.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I'm going graphite again this #MinCup26 match for the whole being one of the first minerals to ever form & the being used by humans since the neolithic. Both are amazing contenders, but #Graphite juuust outdoes #Pyromorphite for me.

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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#MinCup26 Quarterfinal 4 Linked by archaic translations and mineralogical misunderstandings, the quarterfinals are ending in hexagons with vivid pyromorphite vs writeable graphite. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

Split photo between translucent lemon-yellow hexagonal crystal jutting out of a mass of shiny black bubbling minerals and metallic silver graphite hexagon with crosshatched surface set even within a matte translucent white rough crystal mass.

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OUGS Social Media @ougeolsoc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Two of my winners head to head, but it has to be #halite for me in #MinCup26 Quarterfinal 3, for its ability to move mountains. Look what salt does to the Austrian Alps at Hallstatt, Austria. Saving halite's role in ocean chemistry and currents for the semis. C'mon #TeamHalite get those votes in!

Cross section of Austrian Alps S to N at Plassen, showing Permian/Triassic salt rock, Haselgebirge Fm

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CRB @crossbaumann55.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If I weren't already in the Halite camp, all these clever poems would begin to pull me over. But fluid inclusions? Trapped organisms? That should be a closer for anyone still on the fence. Halite!

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Dots and Lines @dotsandlines.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#Halite may just be one of the most sung-about minerals. Let's build a #HalitePlaylist! First up: Shawneetown by The Longest Johns "Whisky's in the jug, boys, and wheat’s in the sack We'll trade 'em down to Shawneetown, and we'll bring the rock salt back" #MinCup

m.youtube.com

Shawneetown | The Longest Johns

YouTube video by The Longest Johns

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Naturae Lapides @naturaelapides.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A wonderful and versatile halite that everyone will, of course, prefer over its upstart competitor. A specimen from Silesia, Poland, just for your viewing pleasure. www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... #MinCup26

bloc de halite translucide rétroéclairée par une lumière bleutée

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J. Raasch @jraasch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#Julienite might capture thiocyanate from microbes that were alive a few thousand or a few hundred million years ago. But #Halite can capture and preserve entire microbes from 830 million years ago! Vote #Halite! www.sciencealert.com/830-million-...

sciencealert.com

Potentially Alive 830-Million-Year-Old Organisms Found Trapped in Ancient Rock

An incredible discovery has just revealed a potential new source for understanding life on ancient Earth.

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InvestigationCone @investigationcone.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Voted #halite, it's the mineral that you eat! And it's tasty! #mincup26

A hand holding pyramidal stepped salt crystals.

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Vergil 🌋 @kleinergeologe.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you vote Julianite based on color, reconsider. #Halite already covered your bases.

green, pink, yellow, red halite crystals in a display case in that order.
Above them two pieces of colorless and blue halite

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Susie Leopold @blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I always forget about my (admittedly subpar) photos from museums! Some California pink halite is probably from Searles Lake, where the color comes from "carotenoid pigments produced by halophilic archaea and algae." The other display shows colorless intergrown halite cubes and then loose cubes.

Light pink hopper halite. Hopper, or skeletal, crystals happen when the outside parts of the crystal grows faster than the inside bits. The label lists the source of the halite is California, meaning the pink is likely from algae,
Cranbrook Institute of Science, 2025

Display called "Halite Cubic Cleavage." On a riser is colorless, cubic halite with the cubes intergrown. Below is a ledge of smaller, colorless, individual cubic halite crystals featuring one larger cube surrounded by 13 smaller cubes.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA, 2023

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Eos @eos.org · 27/09/2026

Enrich your reading with our salty collection. eos.org/tag/salts-so...

A colorized electron microscope image shows a sodium carbonate vein in a grain of material from the asteroid Ryugu.

A map of the upper Midwest showing regions of potential lightning strikes of salt (episodic salinization).

Thousands of film reels are stacked in an Underground Vaults & Storage (UV&S) storage bay in a former Hutchinson, Kan., salt mine.

A web of salt deposits lurks just below the surface of the Dead Sea.

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Eos @eos.org · 27/09/2026

“Everyone around the world … has a story about salt.” That’s why we’re voting for #halite in this #Mincup26 quarterfinal, and why we love Motoi Yamamoto’s incredible, ephemeral installations. youtu.be/4g-YY5LnSJw?...

youtu.be

The story behind Motoi Yamamoto's salt art | Documentary

YouTube video by OFX

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Genuinely confused why the vote is currently so close. Vote Halite #MinCup26!

m.youtube.com

Kate's Salt Song

YouTube video by flatpicksome

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Julienite is just blue. Halite (comes in different colours) is necessary to human life, used as art material: it’s carved, watercolour effects, salt prints, glazes, installations & more. As a marine geophysicist who does marine electromagnetic surveys depending on salinity: vote halite! #MinCup26

“Japanese Artist Motoi Yamamoto’s incredible, labyrinthine installations are the result of 45 hours of meticulously piled grains of salt, strewn inside a medieval castle in the South of France” via booooooom.com

The photo shows a stone chamber with vaulted ceiling in which Yamamoto has installed salt so it looks like tiny mountains and a large blood red floor surface covered with a salt labyrinth like a Turing pattern.

A carved medieval scene in halite with a kneeling man and crowned woman and armoured knights in the background in Wieliczka, Poland’s salt mine via Wieliczka Salt Mine Tours

“Spiral Jetty is a work of land art constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work by American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also titled Spiral Jetty. Built on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah entirely of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks, Spiral Jetty forms a 1,500-foot-long (460 m), 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) counterclockwise coil jutting from the shore of the lake.” Via Wikipedia

This aerial photo (Dia Art Foundation / Nancy Holt / Holt/Smithson Foundation) shows the burgundy reddish lake, the spiral earthwork whitish with salt and arid shoreline.

19th century salt print (early photographic method) of a bearded man in jacket facing left. The area outside of a rectangle with his face is much more faded sepia toned. Below in pencil is written “Charles Louis Wallace”

“The materials required for salt printmaking, the oldest negative-to-positive photographic technique, are simple: silver nitrate, cotton or rag paper, water, sodium thiosulfate, sunlight, and table salt” via The Harvard Gazette

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authodizer @doktrock.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#Halite centered on this shelf of a mineral display. A cluster of light pink halite crystals accompanies two large crystals, one of which is clear while the other transitions from clear to black. #MinCup26 contender #sphalerite to the right.

Portion of a vitrine with glass shelves and mineral specimens. These include potassium feldspar, hornblende, fluorite, gypsum, sphalerite, galena, and muscovite. Description says:

"Minerals
Minerals are naturally occurring solids with definite chemical compositions and highly ordered internal structure. Minerals are crystalline and they grow as trillions of atoms connect in regular, three-dimensional patterns. Each crystal starts small and grows as more atoms are added.

Crystals grow from water rich in dissolved minerals, from melted rock, and even vapor. Under the influence of different temperatures and pressures, atoms combine in seemingly endless crystal variations. There are over 4,000 officially recognized mineral species and as many as a hundred new ones are described each year. - www.mnh.si.edu

(Illustration of crystal atomic arrangement)
This model represents a unit cell of Halite (NaCI). Note that the sodium (purple) and chlorine (orange) ions in the model form cubes and the halite crystals are also cubes. The shape of a well formed crystal is the shape of the unit cell of that mineral."

Microphoto of halite crystals.

The back of a child's head wearing a ball cap and a hand are in the foreground.

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Fernando Salvaterra @salvaterra.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Quarterfinal 3 julienite VS halite #mincup26 #minerals

illustration of two minerals competing on the Mineral Cup 2026 quarterfinals: julienite VS halite. the first are tiny needle-like crystals embedded on a rock. the last is a single blue crystal chunk

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varnam.bsky.social @varnam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I made Halite, Haliter, and Halitest Pokémon for #MinCup26 match up!

Beige Pokémon NaCli marked up with blue stripes

Second level salt Pokémon also Beige Pokémon marked up with blue stripes

Third level salt Pokémon also Beige Pokémon marked up with blue stripes

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wyotitania @wyotitania.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Whoa. So cool! The Zagros also have "salt glaciers," a byproduct started from salt tectonics (!! - see @vickyveritas.bsky.social's description of how the salt rises to the surface). This particular salt glacier is formed from halite in the Zagros in southeastern Iran. #TeamHalite #MinCup26

An overhead view of a salt glacier in southeastern Iran from NASA.

Source: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/salt-glacier-zagros-mountains-91264/

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Bkania @bkania.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is just #Cool #MinCup26 #Nature #Beauty anyone can play and vote. Check out @mineralcup.bsky.social to see what this is all about. Oh yeah #FatBear week has started.

static.klipy.com

Bear Dancing Laffy Taffy in the Forest

ALT: Bear Dancing Laffy Taffy in the Forest

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MineralExpert.org @mexporg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Nice #Halite cluster from Inowroclav, Poland. Size 8 cm #MinCup26 #MinCup #mineral #crystasl #mineralogy #mineralexpert

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JBinnacle - A Travel Logbook @jbinnacle.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Team #Halite I mean, the other guy is ok too but did the Polish fill a whole mine of it with sculptures, statues and chandeliers? #Wieliczka #MineralCup #MinCup26

Underground chapel with walls and chandeliers carved out of salt

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The #Salt of the Earth The Zagros Mountains are a range that stretches from eastern Turkey to southeastern Iran. The weight of the overlying rock layers and the pressure of the salt itself cause the salt to rise. Plate tectonics also play a role in this active area. Vote #Halite

Colorful striped mountains of salt (white halite), anhydrite, and gypsum tower in Zagros. Photo: Philippe Crochet Source: https://www.geologyin.com/2023/01/salt-domes-and-salt-glaciers-of-zagros.html

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I can make a case for the importance of both chrysocolla and halite as art materials and for their roles in art history. Pliny listed chrysocolla as one of the most valuable pigments (though often it was often faked). Salt is used for water colour effects, it is carved & installations. #MinCup26

SICÁN-LAMBAYEQUE culture North coast 750–1375 AD Tumi [Sacrifical knife] gold, silver, chrysocolla, turquiose, lapis lazuli, spondylus; Museo Oro del Perú, Lima © Photograph Daniel Giannoni

"scene of the wall paintings ( Deposition from the cross , on the southern wall). The faux marble dado with geometric motifs is seen in the lower part. The image shows the appearance of the paintings before the current restoration. ” This mural at the medieval Sienna Cathedral uses Chrysocolla as a pigment via: Thirteenth century wall paintings under the Siena Cathedral (Italy). Mineralogical and petrographic study of materials, painting techniques and state of conservation July 2006Journal of Cultural Heritage 7(3):171-185 DOI:10.1016/j.culher.2006.04.002

Sigalit Landau, De Deux [detail], 2017, tutu dress coated in salt crystals. The artist submerged objects, like the tutu pictured (on wood, headless, limbless manikin, suspended against a grey background) in the Dead Sea undergone a process of crystallization in the salty waters of the Dead Sea "to transform these everyday objects into works of art encrusted with salt in a completely innovative concept, lending them a magical appearance," as a reflection of the current ecological crisis there via i24 News

Bas relief carved in salt showing many bearded male figures in the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland. Via Amusing Planet.
"The Wieliczka Salt Mine, located in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland, has a unique position in the history of salt mining. Built in the 13th century, this mine was in operation for 700 years producing rock salt without interruption until 2007, becoming one of the world's oldest running salt mines. The scale of excavation in this mine is huge – a complex labyrinth of corridors, galleries, and chambers, totaling more than 300km in length on several levels. But the miners who worked there did more than just mine salt. Over the centuries, these miners working underground had established a tradition of carving sculptures out of the native rock salt. This include dozens of statues, three chapels, altars, bas-reliefs, and an entire cathedral, even the chandeliers that hang from the ceiling. It is an astonishing sight, one that draws over a million tourists from around the world each year."

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Helen MC @crystallised-cricket.com · 23/09/2026

No contest for #crystallography for today's #MinCup26 battle - we have 'I don't know my crystal structure' #Chrysocolla vs 'First crystal structure EVER determined' of #Halite. So though it is a boring structure - #Halite gets my vote today

Image representing the crystal structure of halite. Yellow spheres represent sodium atoms, green spheres represent chlorine atoms. The representation is drawn in VESTA from entry #641 in the American mineralogist database.

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Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford @saavikford.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Vote for #Halite, literally the MOST lickable rock! #MinCup26

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Louise Dawe @louisedawe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I’m voting #Halite in this #MinCup26 round! Under 1.7 GPa, NaCl forms a tridecahydrate with a hydrogen-bond network like ice VI, including orientationally disordered water molecules. Yamashita explores salt’s this high-pressure chemistry in @actacrystb.iucr.org: journals.iucr.org/paper?ne5013=

journals.iucr.org

The hydrogen-bond network in sodium chloride tridecahydrate: analogy with ice VI

The hydrogen-bonded structure of sodium chloride tridecahydrate, NaCl·13(H, D)2O, has been determined at 1.7 GPa and 298 K by single-crystal neutron diffraction. Its hydrogen-bond network is analogou...

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Elizabeth H @elizabethh.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm on Team Salty this round. 😂🧂 They're both so interesting though. #MinCup26

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🌌Forebodings of Éskʷətayit @joxter.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

we're getting into "matches egineered in a lab to hurt me" territory, bc this choice is agonising, but #Halite it is. #MinCup26

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 7: Despite voting blue previously and also against salt I am going halide this time because I love hopper crystals and the clues to palaeoenvironment when salt crystals are buried in sediment and then leave their marks in the resultant rock.

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Dots and Lines @dotsandlines.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Despite my usual affinity for copper-based minerals, I've gotta go for the mineral in my kitchen working wonders on a regular basis. #halite #MinCup

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Naturae Lapides @naturaelapides.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Today it’s time to pay tribute to this long-standing culinary companion of humankind, and to pay the ‘gabelle’ (an old French term for the salt tax). A photo of halite with magnificent translucent qualities, taken from a NL video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J1L... Vote for Halite! #MinCup26

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OUGS Social Media @ougeolsoc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It has to be #halite the mineral that can move mountains! Look at that halite bed (red) that the Jura mountains are sliding on! Vote #teamhalite #Mincup26 And it is good on your fish and chips too ;)

NW -SE Cross section through Jura and foreland showing, in red, the halite unit that facilitates detachment

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Elwyn Rain @elwynrain.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Halite is back in the #MinCup26 ! A (sometime) blue beauty, very useful to humanity, and doing crazy things in techtonics ? Go vote for it !

Two woman in blue dresses cuddling on a branch covered by cristals

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Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Things that make me happy: Picking the #Halite photos to colour-match challengers. It’s a little bit evil converting how often #MinCup voting comes down to a battle of the rainbow, but where’s the fun in celebrating a decade of play if we’re not are all evil?

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Widgiemooltha is a 1897 historic town in Western Australia’s goldfields that arose during the gold rush, & was named the aboriginal name for a nearby hill. This pretty purple putnisite crystal was found there. This mineral has a completely unique chemical structure found nowhere else in nature.

This tiny purple putnisite crystal is from the Armstrong Ni Mine, Widgiemooltha, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australia. It is unique in chemistry and nature, and found nowhere else. From Mindat: https://www.mindat.org/photo-543393.html

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KSircombe @ksircombe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Voting for #putnisite in #MinCup26🧪⚒️ because: * awesome colour * unique chemistry * discovery locality is in the middle of arid salt lake in 🇦🇺, so, inevitably, it is named for a polar bear because it kinda looks like one... (image attached, decide for yourself, then vote #putnisite) buff.ly/eVmLGpm

Satellite image of an arid landscape showing an elongated, island-like dark landform surrounded by pale grey, cream and pink salt flats. Bright white shoreline deposits trace the edges of the feature, while scattered small pools and irregular lagoon shapes appear across the surrounding terrain. The image highlights contrasting geological patterns, textures and colours typical of a dry inland lake or playa system viewed from above.

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Dots and Lines @dotsandlines.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

And when I reach Australia I'll go and search for gold And maybe find some putnisite Or so I have been told And when I've spotted purple I'll be sure to take you there 'Cause it's found no place but what looks from space Like Australia's Polar Bear #MinCup26 #putnisite #parody

m.youtube.com

Good Ship Ragamuffin | The Longest Johns

YouTube video by The Longest Johns

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DL Whitney @sorosilicate.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Subducted chert with perfect little #garnets scattered in a sea of #quartz, as seen under cross polarized and plane polarized light; FOV ~ 1.5 mm. Laytonville, California US. Garnet has previously won #MineralCup and maybe 2026 is finally the year for #quartz! #MinCup26

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Aleta @aletamosquito.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#Quartz seems to be doing well in today's #MinCup26 matchup. There's still time though, so if you haven't done your part for #TeamQuartz, go vote! (Also go vote if you want that other mineral to win; just know that you're wrong for it. 😜)

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Aleta @aletamosquito.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The problem with running a #MinCup26 competition at your library is sometimes you have to enter a vote contrary to what you want. I just put in my patrons' choice of #Stichtite, effectively canceling out my own vote for #Quartz. Bah humbug. (But really, I am delighted that patrons are engaging!)

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Dave Rodland @daverodland.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Of #quartz I have a pick today for #MinCup26 ! 🧪⚒️💎 My mineralogy students might have a favorite specimen, but it's hard to tell why.

Clear quartz crystals, Mt. Ida and Alaska

Unlabeled quartz crystal mass, in a vaguely suggestive habit.

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lynncorrigan.bsky.social @lynncorrigan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The trophy for when quartz wins #MinCup26

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Elizabeth V @geolizzy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I would like to vote for the soft purple one, but #quartz (specifically amethyst) was the mineral that got me interested in rocks and geology #MinCup26

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OUGS Social Media @ougeolsoc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It's fascinating learning about unusual minerals like #stichtite but good 'ol #quartz is so fundamental to geology that it has my vote in #MinCup26 go #TeamQuartz!

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Nina Fairweather @ninafairweather.com · 20/09/2026

Quartz, darling. Petal. Don't listen to the haters. Sure, you're common, but that's a feature and not a bug. Research and use of most other crystal lattices wouldn't be half as far if we didn't have you. You're a literal inspiration. #MinCup26

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