#zircon is useful for fission-track cooling ages too -it's closure temperature is ~220°C (the temperature when the fission tracks are annealed away). John Garver's group at Union college (@geo_garver
) used ziron fission tracks to show that the same Adirondack rocks have been cooling since the late-Precambrian/Cambrian rifting of Rodinia.
#MinCup23 #zircon #Adirondack #UnionCollege

#mincup23 Well., simple one: #zircon is more interesting, forms nice crystals, is like a memory and timing module, totally making its own thing. While the other contestant is just useful but rather boring, and unstable enough to drive a business of just fixing failed ones.

⚒️ Today, it is phosphate #fluoroapatite against beautiful silicate #zircon aka the timelord mineral. 💎

https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/110998058838272417

I'm leaning towards fluorapatite but will accept convincing either way. Feel free to explain why #fluorapatite or #zircon is a better choice for this round of #mincup23 voting.
https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/110998058838272417

Okay so #fluorapatite sounds like it should be chaos (shark teeth!) but really how much more controlled do you get than regularly regrowing all your teeth? (And why isn't that a thing humans retained when we evolved? Think of the $ we'd save on dental bills!)

#Zircon tho. My understanding is Zircon sure has given scientists some fun times figuring out how it even WORKS re background radiation of the universe and time. Also, Dr who = Time Lord = peak chaos. Vote Zircon! #MinCup23

#DoctorWho fans! Zircon needs your help. #TeamZircon.

QT: https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/110998058838272417
MineralCup@mastodon.social - Tick-took, tick-tick, it’s time to break your heart with #MinCup23 Round 1 Match 3: #Fluorapatite v #Zircon!

It’s shiny shark teeth vs the Time Lord. You have 24 hours.

Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-1-match-3

Check results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-1-match-3

A zircon crystal from the Jack Hills region of Australia is confirmed to be the oldest bit of Earth's crust - 4.4 billion years old.

#science #sciencefacts #zircon #crystal #earthscrust

https://www.science.org/content/article/oldest-piece-earth-discovered

I love the timeline diagram in here. https://www.iflscience.com/at-44-billion-years-old-this-is-the-oldest-piece-of-earth-ever-found-68469 #zircon #geology #science #minerals #Australia #JackHills

Next album from #zircon is on Kickstarter for you to back too. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zircon/arcology-the-next-zircon-album

A #Russian frigate carrying #Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles is going to be joining naval exercises with #China and #SouthAfrica in February.

From the Wikipedia page for the Zircon: "Its Mach 9 speed means that it cannot be intercepted by existing missile defence systems and its precision makes it lethal to large targets such as aircraft carriers."

Between drones and the fact that the US, China, and Russia all have missiles capable of taking them out, #AircraftCarriers may be as obsolete now as battleships were in WWII.

As an aside, I'm pretty sure #Gorshkov is not "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union".

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/23/russian-warship-to-join-drills-with-china-south-africa

Royal Navy frigate tracking the movements of a Russian warship in the North Sea Reportedly Carrying #Zircon #Hypersonic Missiles. HMS Portland is monitoring the Russian guided missile frigate Admiral #Gorshkov and accompanying tanker Kama as they sail in waters close to the UK.

Read More:
https://www.defconlevel.com/european-command-news.php#breaking-news

Ruské strašení, jaké nové zbraně vyvíjí, je atraktivní jak pro propagandu, tak pro novináře, ale v reálné válce na 🇺🇦 by nás mělo znepokojovat něco jiného. Není moc relevantní řešit, že 🇷🇺 budou mít za 5 let ne 2,ale dokonce 4 rakety #Zircon, 2053 možná i novou ponorku(a let.loď?)

Rusko může být silné, nastartuje-li masovou produkci munice (do starých "dobrých" děl a raketometů),či levných dronů. Toho, o co dnes žebrá v 🇰🇵 a 🇮🇷.

Masy zvyklé na bídu & destrukce území protivníka,to bohužel funguje.

#Rusko
🇷🇺 strašení, jaké nové zbraně vyvíjí, je atraktivní jak pro propagandu, tak pro novináře, ale v reálné válce na 🇺🇦 by nás mělo znepokojovat něco jiného. Není moc relevantní řešit, že 🇷🇺 budou mít za 5 let ne 2,ale dokonce 4 rakety #Zircon, 2053 možná i novou ponorku(a let.loď?)

🇷🇺 může být silné, nastartuje-li masovou produkci munice (do starých "dobrých" děl a raketometů), či levných dronů. Toho, o co dnes žebrá v 🇰🇵a🇮🇷.

Masy zvyklé na bídu & destrukce území protivníka, to bohužel funguje.

Love that @MineralCup got a shoutout in today's #NPRShortWave episode for nicknaming #Zircon as The Time Lord. Brought me back to the fun of posting all the #DoctorWho memes during #MinCup2022. Ahhhh, happy memories.

#NPR #ShortWave

Russia sends ‘unique’ new hypersonic cruise missiles to Atlantic and Indian Oceans
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3205600/russia-sends-unique-new-hypersonic-cruise-missiles-atlantic-and-indian-oceans #Russia #Missiles

The frigate #Gorshkov is armed with the latest #Zircon missiles, which fly at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of over 1,000km, claims president
They can overcome any defence system and are ‘capable of delivering pinpoint and powerful strikes against the enemy at sea and on land’, Putin says

Great piece about #zircon out today on NPR from @nellgreenfieldboyce
#geology #minerals #archean #time
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1139782011/to-peer-into-earths-deep-time-meet-a-hardy-mineral-known-as-the-time-lord

Time Lord Zircon in the news.

" "They are really the best markers of Earth's time..." says Michael Ackerson, a geologist with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History."

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1139782011/to-peer-into-earths-deep-time-meet-a-hardy-mineral-known-as-the-time-lord

#Zircon
#NPR

So, I may have taken 550+ photos (until my phone almost died) and had my husband take 250+ photos. I'm not going to attempt to go through them until home with my computer. 🤣

I'm going to be ready for @MineralCup 2023!

I love the way the exhibit was organized. I could happily spend many more hours exploring the exhibit.

https://carnegiemnh.org/
#Zircon ##MineralCup #MinCup2023 #CarnegieMuseumOfNaturalHistory

You might not think much of sand, but the minerals found in a pile of sand can reveal the lost history of long destroyed mountains: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/sand-tells-us-the-history-of-mountains #geology #zircon #Discover

Some lovely #zircon in CL from the Tumalo Volcanic Center (Oregon) I took today on our SEM. Enjoy the weekend!