Are the oceans leaky bathtubs? #Lawsonite is partially responsible! 20% of the ocean's water may lave drained into the deep mantle over the last billion years.*

Don't blame Canada! The Cascade subduction zone is too warm. #MinCup23 #Geology #Minerals #WaterCycle

* Korenaga, Planavsky, & Evans (2017) Phil. Trans. A.

#TeamLawsonite for today's round of #MinCup23. Okay, #Corundum is a nice mineral, but I'll give #Lawsonite some love just because it's bringing back a #ThinSectionThursday on a friday :)

Link to vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-8

I voted for Lawsonite because I live right by the interior Coast Range of California that is primarily Franciscan Complex geology. I used to work in it too. Here’s a sample I saw at the Smithsonian in 2015. #MinCup23 #Lawsonite

.... wow poor #lawsonite is losing badly so far. No respect for metamorphic processes I tell you what. 😤 🤣 #MinCup23

(Amusingly, despite being common in blueschist formations (I think that's what that meant), #lawsonite is not actually blue. It looks pretty boring really. I think the blue part of that comes from the fact #kyanite is often blue and speckled all thru. Iirc. I didn't get off track for once in my life today lolol.)

Anyway just for sheer on the grand scale I guess metmorphism is chaotic, I'll vote Lawsonite! #MinCup23

#corundum as a gemstone is cool! As a mineral... I mean it has some industrial uses as an abrasive, but other than that... 🤷🏻

#lawsonite is metamorphic, characteristic of low heat and high pressure at plate boundaries, and very hydrated - so it tends to drag water molecules around with it. You'll also find other blueschist minerals like #kyanite where lawsonite often is. (c) #MinCup23

Okay, if I was voting on about any other campaign line this year, #corundum vs #lawsonite would be easier. Or at least probably less boring. 😂

Neither of them are chaotic at all - as far as minerals go, they're upright, goody-two-shoes grasping their pearls (carefully, because they're both much higher on the mohs scale than pearls!) at how chaotic some of these other minerals are. (c) #MinCup23