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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 1h

Naturae Lapides is right. After 10 years, #QuartzDeservesToWin MinCup26 #MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Naturae Lapides @naturaelapides.bsky.social · 3h

Close your eyes... breathe in... when I snap my fingers, you’ll wake up and vote for Quartz!! Quartz is versatile: here’s a photo of fossilised bark completely covered in shiny brown quartz #QuartzDeservesToWin www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... #MinCup26

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Bill Minarik @silicatefondue.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 2h

Quartz terminations co-precipitated with iron oxides, turning them a delightful burgundy brown. Sample from Bavaria, but now our teaching collection. #MinCup26 #Quartz #IronOxide #Bavaria

Terminated hexagonal quartz crystals brown in color due to iron oxides. Sample collected sometime last century in Bavaria Germany. Canadian quarter for scale.

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 3h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 3h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 3h

Herkimer diamonds are naturally double-terminated quartz crystals with exceptional clarity, mined primarily in Herkimer County, New York. Double termination is very rare in quartz. Link for more info in ALT! #Quartz #MinCup26

"Herkimer diamond" quartz crystals. More at: https://geology.com/articles/herkimer-diamonds.shtml

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Sqril @sqril.bsky.social · 4h

#MinCup26 Semifinals 2 There are so many great posts on both options! Team #Quartz bc GPS. Time is the 4th variable in GPS calcs so accuracy is impt. Quartz based GPS receivers (that can sync to atomic time) are cost effective options for navigation systems. www.cnlucki.com/how-precisio...

cnlucki.com

How Precision Quartz Oscillators Improve GPS and Navigation Systems

Learn how precision quartz oscillators improve GPS and navigation systems through stable timing, accurate synchronization, and reliable frequency control solutions.

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 4h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 4h

A geologic dyke (or dike) is a sheet-like body of rock that cuts vertically or steeply across the layers of pre-existing older rocks. In this case, a quartz dike. These cross-cutting relationships allow relative dating of geologic features. #Quartz #MinCup26

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 8h

Bonus #sciArt for the carbon #SciArtSeptember and the graphite #MinCup26 contender: I lino block printed circuits using graphite-based electrically conductive inks! A printed spiral on paper and a strong magnet makes an interactive print which *is* a speaker.

theminouette.wixsite.com

Multimedia & Interactive | minouette

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Elizabeth V @geolizzy.bsky.social · 6h

Vote #Quartz! These are both good minerals, but quartz comes in pretty colors and crystal shapes. #MinCup

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Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon.bsky.social · 7h

I have so much more to write about #graphite! But it’s all so weird & new to me that confirming I’ve gotten it right is A Task. But if #quartz wins today and again tomorrow, I never need to write about it again… (It’s legit a cool mineral, but it’s been 10 years.) #MinCup26 choices!

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🌌Forebodings of Éskʷətayit @joxter.bsky.social · 6h

Love Graphite but #Quartz: •built Egypt! she made carving & chiseling the limestone monuments of antiquity possible. •teaches us about our water cycle. •wears every colour & happily displays the spectrum for us as prisms. •reference mineral surrounding all of us, wherever we are. #MinCup26

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 9h

Two faves for both my art or physics voting scheme, but I have always been #TeamQuartz #MinCup26! Quartz has been carved, used in pigments & the preparation of canvases since antiquity. 20% of the crust & representative elastic moduli, piezoelectricity & its role in clocks, electronics, GPS!

My mini linocut with quartz crystals and word “Quartz” in script in slate grey. Some of the facets of the crystals are printed onto collaged iridescent translucent paper so they have a pink to pale blue sheen.

This small linocut represents the chemical element Silicon, with its diamond cubic crystal structure shown in silver. Its symbol, atomic number and a couple of its forms are shown in lilac. Silicon is common in the Earth's crust in, especially in silicate minerals like the quartz crystals shown in each corner. The seafloor is litered with microscopic radialarians, which build their amazing skeletons with biogenic silica. Four such creatures circle the symbol for Silicon on the periodic table. The print is one of an edition of 14, each 6" x 6" (15.2 cm x 15.2 cm) printed on Japanese kozo paper.

Rembrandt, A Young Lady Smiling
1633

Medium: Oil
Support: Oak panel
Size: 52.4 x 44 cm
Art period: Baroque
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden – Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (State Art Gallery Dresden)
Gallery Nr 1556
Image credit: The Rembrandt Database, normal light studies: photograph, overall (front), 2005, (record number 15550); Rembrandt Bust of a young woman smiling possibly Saskia van Uylenburgh, dated 1633, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden – Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, inv./cat. no. 1556
The sitter was most probably Rembrandt’s wife Saskia van Uylenburgh.

Contains Quartz via Colourlex.

The strawberry blonde in big red hat and blue dress looks over her shoulder to smile at the viewer.

Title: Chalcedonic quartz seal set in a gold ring
Period: Late Classical
Date: 4th century BCE
Culture: Greek
Medium: Quartz, brown paste, gold
Dimensions: Length: 13/16 in. (2 cm)
Classification: Gems
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1923
Object Number: 23.160.72
Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

Bacchic demon, half lion, half winged satyr carved into chalcedonic quartz seal in a gold ring via The Met

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 10h

This is why miners follow quartz veins. #MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 10h

Quartz is a common mineral, with some very important and uncommon properties. One is piezoelectricity. When quartz is squeezed, it generates an electric charge. Together, quartz and earthquakes can promote the formation of gold nuggets, that can be quite large. #Quartz #MinCup26

Native gold wrapped around white quartz.

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 10h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 11h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 11h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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David🇵🇸 @ididtheiggy.bsky.social · 21h

Quartz is lowkey GOATed when making up 12% of the Earth’s crust is the vibe

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 11h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Matt Murphy @mjosmurphy.bsky.social · 19h

Quartz, of course. What other mineral has a treasure entry in Pikmin 2?

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Naturae Lapides @naturaelapides.bsky.social · 18h

Final choices, and you know what’s right. Only quartz can bring so much joy to so many people in the world of mineralogy. My best quartz specimens from these next two days, starting with a smoky quartz veined with tourmaline. #QuartzDeservesToWin www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... #MinCup26

cristal de quartz fumé traversé d'un tourmaline verte

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Lauren the Flute @laurentheflute.bsky.social · 18h

I love graphite SO much. BUT not as much as I love quartz. I really think this is quartz's year, and I think we need this. In a time of fear, pain, and uncertainty, let's celebrate the joy and wonder of being a kid falling in love with rocks and minerals for the first time. #teamquartz as always

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Elwyn Rain @elwynrain.bsky.social · 16h

This one is so hard Graphite for the joy of traditional drawing or quartz for the amazing digital world ? (Also surprise a wip !)

A pencil drawing split in two by a sword, left half show a dragon with open maw, right one daenerys face. Fire and blood is wrote in the bottom

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Kerstin Neuhaus @microtopico.bsky.social · 16h

Vote color. Vote #quartz! #MinCup26

Several quartz crystals ordered from clear, to dark brown color.

A mixture of different shiny tumbled pieces of minerals on a white ceramic plate

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Tiglath-Pileser III enjoyer @sapoorondo.bsky.social · 15h

We gotta hand it to quartz, graphite has so far been carried by how WE use it and not by the mineral itself, and that sounds like cheating! Following that logic our drawing softwares rely on quartz made hardware. Quartz indirectly channels gorgeous art, too!

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 11h

Great post and a little history of quartz! #MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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LeSuPer @lesuper.bsky.uy · 12h

En la 2da semifinal de #MinCup26 se enfrentan Cuarzo y Grafito. Dos de los minerales más útiles que conocemos pero más opuestos imposible Votá: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... Yo voto Cuarzo porque sus cristales son lo primero que viene a la mente cuando alguien nombra un cristal.

mineralcup.org

Vote in Semifinals 2 — Mineral Cup & Ore Cup

Vote in Quartz vs Graphite Credit: Harold Moritz and John A. Jaszczak

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Dave Rodland @daverodland.bsky.social · 11h

Whichever way you vote, you're voting for the winner, because #TeamVengeance will have justice for halite's loss, and we're a little salty about it. Of quartz, my choice is made ... but graphite is an honorable opponent, and would make me happy too.

Quartz in storage, including large geodes

A storage cabinet drawer full of graphite

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OUGS Social Media @ougeolsoc.bsky.social · 16h

Two of my absolute favourites! Do I vote in this #MinCup26 semi for ubiquitous #quartz or slippery, shiny #graphite - so lovely for drawing pencils! And, with enough P and T, it is diamond!

Diamond/graphite/liquid triple point on a phase diagram

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 11h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Strange Attractor @strangeattracto.bsky.social · 18h

This made me laugh. Mineral Cup fraternization! #MinCup26

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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 17h

Quartz needs you to SAND BY YOUR MAN Or woman. Or mineral. Whatever, QUARTZ! #MinCup26 ⚒️

Soil ternary diagram as song titles with Sand By Your Man colored in with purple

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 23h

15 mins left to make the stuff in your pantry (Halite) one of the finalists in this years MinCup! OR .... will you be allured by that sassy red queen, Cuprite? Critical moment to change the fate of the cup this year! #MinCup26

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Lori @lorib.bsky.social · 22h

Knew the correct response on my Jeopardy game just now, all thanks to #Mincup! Q-What is talc? Woot!

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Aleta @aletamosquito.bsky.social · 22h

This is the year for #Quartz to win #MinCup26!

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Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford @saavikford.bsky.social · 21h

C’mon we gotta go for #Quartz!!! It’s everyone’s first mineral! #MinCup26

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🌌Forebodings of Éskʷətayit @joxter.bsky.social · 20h

It is #Quartz time now. Just watch. ⌚️👀 #MinCup26 💎

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 19h

#MinCup26 Semifinal 2: Had to go with quartz, because graphite. Both have lots going for them but qtz is part of my life the way graphite isn't.🧪🪟

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Transverse Ranges @transverseranges.bsky.social · 19h

#TeamQuartzite for the win. #Graphite is very cool. But….

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N. M. (they/she)⚒️ 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🇪🇺🏳️‍⚧️🌈 @yirara-bah.bsky.social · 14h

Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Quartz Btw, I'm voting #Quartz

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 12h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿

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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 23h

#MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿 Last chance to vote for #Halite. #StaySalty

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