Author | Lightnews

Childs

@childsplaygeology.bsky.social

60 followers 27 following 12 posts

Professional Rock Wrangler American Museum of Natural History Views are my own

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Childs

Alex Spahn 🌋🌪️☄️ @spahn711.bsky.social · Aug 23

The latest eruption of Kilauea is underway, and she's shootin' sideways this time around!

USGS live stream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqmp...

38 350 1.4K

Reposted by Childs

Nadine, Hunter of Rocks 💎 @nadwgab.bsky.social · Jun 1

Happy pride month! #CrystalQueer #minerals 🌈💎

Six photo slices of minerals arranged into a rainbow collage and below that, the six photos of the mineral specimens used for the collage. The crocoite consists of red, elongate crystals, from Tasmania, Australia. The wulfenite is tabular, interlocking orange crystals, from Arizona, USA. The sulphur is a mass of yellow crystals, from Sicily, Italy. The malachite contains curved banding in varying shades of green, from Russia. The azurite is a dark metallic blue resting on top of green malachite, from Arizona, USA. The amethyst consists of a mass of purple, translucent crystals, from Lake Superior, Canada.

All specimens are on display in the Natural History Museum, London.

1 23 110

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Jan 18

No caption needed, have fun.

#malachite #geology #geologyporn #mineralogy

Multiple green malachite stalagmites growing in a cluster on matrix from the Katanga Copper Crescent, DRC. The stalagmites are ridged and bulbous at the top, and the longer formations are slightly curved. On display at Terra Mineralia, Freiberg, Germany.

1 3

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Jan 13

Correction on the alt text: the specimen is from Ocna de Fier, Romania. Not Dal'negorsk, Russia.

An edit button would be nice around these parts.

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Jan 13

When I hand people my phone, I get asked about the stupid number of rock pics. But I mean look at it

#geology #minerals #calcite #quartz

Quartz and calcite from Dal'negorsk, Russia. The specimen bursts open like a flower with many orange quartz points interspersed with pale pink calcite. My money says if you hit the calcite with a UV light, it would glow a brilliant pink or orange. Alas, only plain light in this shot. The specimen is large, likely over 2ft across.

1 4

Reposted by Childs

Jwst Feed @jwstfeed.bsky.social · Jan 13

First JWST image of 2025.
Wolf-Rayet star WR 140.
🔭 🧪

The image shows a bright white point of light surrounded by 17 regularly spaced, hazy dust shells at the bottom, right, and upper right, which look like tree rings. There is noticeably less color in the upper left. The central point, where the two stars are located, has a roughly hexagonal shape.

29 190 2.3K

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Jan 13

This site needs more weird #calcite

#minerals #geology #nature

Calcite from Gongcheng, Guangxi, China on display at the Terra Mineralia in Freiberg, Germany. Twisting clear crystals form alien landscapes on the host rock. It almost looks like an abstract glass sculpture, but is actually part of a cave formation.

1 3

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Jan 13

Had that happen to me over on Mastodon, too. People get defensive over the weirdest shit.

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Jan 13

Y'all are out here making castles out of volcanic glass and acting like it's mithril

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Jan 13

My kingdom for a fantasy novel that actually understands what obsidian is

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Dec 6

Anyone else have a soft spot for wooden crystal models?

A wooden crystal model stands on a grey base. The model showcases a scalenohedron with step-faces, giving the crystal a ridged appearance.

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Dec 3

I remain haunted by one of the best cerussite crystals I have ever seen. A perfect arrowhead twin perched on large crystals of anglesite. Lead mineral power couple.

#mineralogy #geology

Photo of a museum display case. Inside is a specimen labeled "Cerussit-Zwilling auf Anglesit: Touissit, Oujda-Angad, Morokko"

Translation: Cerussite twin on Anglesite

The specimen is three large crystals of anglesite coated with a second generation, giving the crystal a sparkling, encrusted appearance. At the top of the largest anglesite crystal is a twinned cerussite. The twin is a honey-gold and forms a perfect arrowhead.

1 3

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Dec 1

what if it is a really good one

Aquamarine crystal cluster on a plastic base. The crystal is an elongated hexagonal crystal, with a second crystal cutting perpendicular across the center. The specimen looks like a cross.

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Dec 1

Love seeing the ways #sci-fi is used to bring new #science into popular imagination. Analog always included one article on "science fact" among its stories. This issue from 1966 tries to explain the new (and then-controversial) theory of plate tectonics!

#geology #history

Cover of Analog Magazine, April 1966. Title: Analog Science Fiction - Science Fact.

The cover story is Moon Prospector by William B Ellern. The cover image shows a massive tank-like object shooting a blue laser into the distance, blowing up a portion of barren ground.

A hand holding an open book against a brick wall. Page is titled Drifting Continents.

First blurb reads: The history of science is replete with outrageous hypotheses. They are mostly forgotten, as best they should be. But from time to time, one of them proves to be true. So it was with the concept that the earth is round and that it spins in space supported by nothing at all. Now it seems to be so with the hypothesis that the continents of the world are fragments of two former super-continents, Laurasia and Gondwana, which first rifted apart possibly 150 million years ago, forming the modern continents which then drifted to their present positions.

Open book against a grey background. Text reads: Figure 2. Possible modes of faunal dispersion.

Two images. First image titled Rafting. Shows an opossum dangling from a tree branch over a large body of water. The opossum is curled up and looks nervous.

Second image titled Continental Drift. Two masses of land are separated by a large body of water. There is a sauropod (long-necked dinosaur) on each landmass. The dinosaur closest to the viewer has a broken heart over its head as it looks towards its friend.

Two images. First image titled Island Stepping Stones. Shows a string of islands with two horses, one white and one black, leaping between each island.

Second image titled Isthmian Links. A skinny ribbon of land connects two larger land masses. Mountains are seen in the background as a woolly mammoth crosses the thin ribbon.

Childs @childsplaygeology.bsky.social · Dec 1

Just joined up and throwing my name out into the void. Follow for commentary on:

Mineralogy
Mineral Resources and Geopolitics
Science Communication
Natural History Museums
Science History
Collections Management