beehaiku

rapakivi: alkali feldspar (pink) rimmed by plagioclase feldspar (grey). this example is about 2 cm in diameter

antirapakivi: plagioclase feldspar (grey) rimmed by alkali feldspar (pink). this example is about 3.5 cm in diameter

rapakivi (left) and antirapakivi (right) in polished granite. the right picture actually has three large examples (and at least one smaller one); this granite has more antirapakivi than rapakivi. the alkali feldspar in this case is orthoclase!

a thin section of a rock with rays of staurolite intertwining with small, rounded quartz grains. a large quartz in the center has rough edges where the staurolite interacts with the grain boundary. there's also a large pore at the bottom right

the same slide but in plain polarized light, making it much less colorful

radial staurolite intergrown with quartz in XPL and PPL

a somewhat yellowed piece of paper in a cardboard box. it reads "Hornfels (?) X / The rock looks like a sandstone, but it feels unusually dense, suggesting that it is metamorphic". below this a note in different handwriting reads "THIS ROCK HAS NO (underlined) CHARACTERISTICS OF A SANDSTONE -- TRY BASALT (heavily underlined)"

the rock in question. it does not look like a sandstone.

a pencil drawing of a slide of quartz arenite. it has one large chert grain and many many many small quartz grains. beneath it is a section for notes with three notes listed: "I hate drawing quartz arenite. why did I pick this sample. I'm going to be drawing quartz for the rest of my life", "chalcedony matrix creates the illusion of a grain-supported rock, but grains do not touch", and "chert grains closely resemble matrix -- both are microcrystalline SiO2"

the state of things btw

labradorite under a polarizing light microscope

microcline under a polarizing light microscope

albite twinning in labradorite and microcline twinning in microcline

my hand holding a rock with stunning blue veins of azurite crystals

this is a sample of azurite i packed at work today that really caught my eye. this mineral has been used in pigment for centuries and it’s easy to see why

this year’s mincup winner was rhodochrosite, a reddish manganese carbonate commonly found near silver veins. i was looking up more about it and discovered it’s actually been found as a biomineral formed by some fungi! i’m super into both fungi and minerals, so i’m looking into this a bit more. here’s a cool paper i found: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/23/17093

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June 2025

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