#ThinSectionThursday Here's a volcanic rock done right 🤩 🥰 This is a trachyte from the Canary Islands. with a gloriously diverse pheno(?)cryst assemblage: K-feldspar, nepheline, titanite, zircon, apatite, clinopyroxene AND amphibole (+opaque oxides). Field of view about 2mm wide. #Geology #Microscopy #Mineralogy #igneousPetrology

I've just dicovered this amazing website about tesselated materials in nature (thanks @npub12cuz...d38p 😊 🙏 )

HU

A lot of pals at Glasgow did work in biomineralization. In 2017 there was a residency + exhibition with the artist Rachel Duckhouse, which I think was one of the best such things I've ever been involved with 😊 🤓 🤩. Lots of beautiful stuff on Rachel's website here:

Rachel Duckhouse

Shell Meets Bone — Rachel Duckhouse

Documenting the work of Artist in Residence Rachel Duckhouse and Professor Maggie Cusack in The University of Glasgow

#Geology #Mineralogy #Art #Biomineralization #Tesselation #ShellMeetsBone

#DogWalkingGeology It's Saturday and the shiny schist is sparkling in the sun. The shine is due to lots of coarse muscovite mica flakes, all lying flat like wee mirrors. This lovely, undulating surface was exposed a few years back when excavating a site for a house at Uisken on Mull. Luckily, the house has not yet been built. #Geology #Mull (NB Spud is not visible in this picture taken 30 mins ago, but he's there (honest)😏 )

#ThinSectionThursday A beautiful low-grade metamorphic rock from the southern Highlands today: the rock consists of large clear (grey/white) porphyroblasts of untwinned albite set in a foliated matrix of green (very dark) flakes of chlorite, and clear flakes (rainbow colours) of muscovite. Field of view about 2mm across. #Geology #Microscopy See Alt text for more info.

Scottish meteorite! Pals at Glasgow Uni have identified area between Loch Treig and Loch Ericht as the likely fall zone. A huge area of mountainous ground. Scotland must be one of the worst places to recover meteorite falls - lots of vegetation, especially bogs, big areas with no population, wet weather etc. The last one recovered was in 1917, although dozens of sizable ones must have fallen since.

STV News

Hillwalkers called to help track down Scotland's first meteorite in 100 years

Researchers from the UK Fireball Alliance have managed to reconstruct the meteor’s path and estimate where fragments have fallen.

BBC News

Highland hillwalkers asked to look out for meteorite fragments

The UK Fireball Alliance is hopeful walkers will stumble across the space rocks which fell in the Highlands in July.

#NaeChance #Meteorite #Scotland

Very pleased to have spotted this anonymous lifting stone at the wonderful Glengarry community hall/cafe/ heritage centre. It turns out to be the legendary 132kg Invergarry stone. The roundness and weight means it's immovable by mortals (eg me 😃), although heroic videos are available online. #LiftingStones #Scotland

#MinCup25 Two fine minerals facing off in today's bout: the exotic, chemically and structurally intriguing perovskite vs the ubiquitous chameleon that is calcite. @npub1ssgr...swjk/115143274766404499" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://mastodon.scot/deck/NOSTR_0/115143274766404499 This year I'm going for #calcite Among other things, it makes for some completely bonkers, unusably fragile gemstones. like this one, which turns a ray of light entering the stone into 8 rays leaving the stone. More here: https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/winter-1984-calcite-hurlbut (with free link to full pdf) #Geology #Gemstones #Optics