Susie Leopold
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blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Susie Leopold
@blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
210 followers 350 following 260 posts
Nerd who 💜s: husband, 🐱s Mara Jade🌈, Leia Organa, General Hugs & Obsidian Gideon (one more and I qualify for crazy-cat-lady status), Hawai`i, geology, 🌋💎 Star Wars costuming, Outlander, books, movies, nature, MineralCup superfan(she/her)💙
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blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Michigan is my home and it has #copper. Three copper in calcite specimens, two originating in MI and one from Arizona. The only calcite I like has a chewy copper center!

Vote for Copper in #OreCup! www.mineralcup.org/vote-results...
Display case full of Michigan copper. Text on the glass reads, "Michigan's copper formed after our continent almost split apart. North America almost split apart about a billion years ago--right through Michigan. In the process, fluids heated by the hot magma carried dissolved elements as they seeped up through the rocks. These elements crystallized as minerals, like copper, in cracks and air pockets within the rocks." A large, amorphous float copper with tarnish and thin edges occupies the back of the case. Tucson calcite infused copper from Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. For reasons I can't fathom, they don't label these with both minerals represented. (Another piece is just labeled "calcite". This is giving copper-colored paw a large beast with moss and dirty toes. Copper with calcite from Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan. Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Euhedral transparent calcite with a hazy copper center from Keweenaw County, Michigan. Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
November 9, 2025 at 2:54 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Bornite is great, but #molybdenite is not copper! I kid (kind of)! A soft, silver, greasy, hexagonal mineral that can look like JiffyPop, foil-wrapped leftovers, or metallic graphite. It can handle high-stress/high-temps, & it's anti-corrosive. Those seem like good qualities here & now!
#OreCup
Silver hexagonal sheets of molybdenite on a brownish-white mineral. From Carnegie Natural History Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What looks like melted silver candle wax dripped onto a lumpy brown matrix, is molybdenite. Sometimes it looks sad and waxy, which I totally identify with. (If one can identify with a mineral.) From Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Less melted, but still somewhat tired looking silver molybdenite layers which grow increasingly smaller as the number of layers increase. From Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
November 8, 2025 at 12:40 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
For once I have both mins in my collection! (Ignore the fur-covered cat tree.)

1/3 of my cats posed for photos. They all received treats after the grueling sitting next to a mineral. Copper-hued Hugs is MVP, Obsidian sort of posed, and Leia did her own thing.

#OreCup #MinCup #Copper
Mostly oxidized galena and copper on furry cat tree. Leia with copper. Or, Leia attempting to smell my phone as I tried to take a photo. Obsidian and General Hugs with copper. Obsidian checking to see if copper is food. (He just sniffed it. They received treats after photos.)
November 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Michigan has historically been a source for beautiful, and useful, #copper. Specifically, the Upper Peninsula contains the largest native copper deposits!

Copper from Carnegie Natural History and Cranbrook Institute.

Vote copper for Michigan!

#OreCup #MinCup
Pennsylvania copper from Adams County. On the left is a polished orb, on the right is dendritic copper. Dancing llama dendritic copper from Houghton County, Michigan. Crystalline copper ball within white mineral cavity. Copper with squiggly branches from a mass, there is some color variation from fresh orange and red to slightly tarnished green.
November 3, 2025 at 12:56 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
#Hematite makes botryoidal alien eggs, has a rusty-red streak, is what makes Mars--and places on Earth--red. it's a paint pigment, in childhood rock collections, tells us when Earth became oxygenated, and can be a pretty, sparkly rock.
#MinCup25
📷mine from Cranbrook Institute of Science
Specular, silver-toned, small glittery morsels, hematite behind an unglazed porcelain square with a rusty red streak--a diagnostic tool for identifying hematite. A glossy oddly shaped hematite specimen in multiple brown tones. Lumpy, alien egg, botryoidal, metallic hematite. Lumpy, alien egg, botryoidal, red ochre, hematite.
September 29, 2025 at 3:49 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Rarer than the pink beauty, is the soft baby blue #tugtupite.
Prismatic gemmy pink tugtupite crystals are also an extremely rare find.

Vote #tugtupite
www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r3...

Images from: uvminerals.org/glownotes/mi...

#MinCup25
Baby blue tugtupite in white, colorless and black matrix. Soft pink prismatic tugtupite. The crystals are transparent to translucent and uniformly colored.
September 26, 2025 at 6:08 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
#Tugtupite is...
#Tenebrescent -It darkens when exposed to UV.
#Fluorescent -It fluoresces under long-, mid-, or shortwave UV.
#Phosphorescent -It GLOWS IN THE DARK!!!!

www.flickr.com/photos/28617...
www.flickr.com/photos/28617...
www.flickr.com/photos/28617...

#MinCup25
Two photos of the same rock. The top photo shows a dirty white and pink stone. The pink is a soft baby pink. The lower photo is the same rock after it has been exposed to UV light. The light pink areas are noticeably darker. This darkening of the mineral after UV exposure is called tenebrescence. Two photos of the same rock. The top photo shows what happens when the rock is exposed to shortwave ultraviolet light: An extremely bright neon pink emerges where the mineral tugtupite is found. The lower photo has the formerly pink tugtupite a hot yellow/orange shade under longwave ultraviolet light. This changing of the mineral's color upon different lengths of UV exposure is called fluorescence. Two photos of the same rock. The top photo shows what happens when the rock is exposed to shortwave ultraviolet light: An extremely bright neon pink emerges where the mineral tugtupite is found. The lower photo displays the formerly pink areas glowing furiously. The darkest pink from the UV image is now a pale pink, while the lightest areas are almost a bluish-white color. The glow following exposure of tugtupite to UV light, after all light has been removed, is called phosphorescence.
September 26, 2025 at 1:21 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
I love both minerals! Hematite makes BIFs, one of the best rocks, plus it has so many habits and finishes. Haüyne makes gorgeous blues and it likes to capture bubbles and other minerals as inclusions. It also has some cool patterns on thin section.
TS images: www.alexstrekeisen.it/english/vulc...
While there are numerous haüyne in the field-of-view, a large two-lobed haüyne dominates the field of view. It shows a dark, jagged band around the haüyne crystals, then a band of light blue, then a center of crosshatched patterns from exsolution of iron-sulfides and iron-oxides. Since haüyne is an isometric mineral, it generally goes black when the polars are crossed. If it has inclusions, they can, and do, react to the change polarization.
September 25, 2025 at 1:11 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
It's time to unleash the kra‐-um, cats, yes, cats.

Leia, Hugs, and Obsidian want everyone to know that taenite is from SPACE! Kyanite is useful, but it's not cooled slowly in outer space before crashing to Earth!

Like my tiny pallasite, sometimes with olivine (the 1st MinCup champ)!
#MinCup25
Leia, a gray and white cat casually chilling on her favorite scratching post, is next to a tiny pallasite meteorite. Her green eyes are slightly narrowed as she tries to understand how space mineral can be losing to kyanite. Hugs, and orange tabby with amber eyes, is shocked, SHOCKED, pretty space mineral taenite isn't winning. Here he shows off a small pallasite meteorite. Sleek, shiny, and small, Obsidian uses both paws (and a bit of claw) to highlight the mineral taenite in the metallic part of the pallasite meteorite. Hugs, a big orange tabby is intensely staring at a treat next to a small pallasite meteorite. Obi, a green-eyed black cat in the distance is judging you. He also wants everyone to know taenite is in the wee meteorite.
September 23, 2025 at 7:55 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Sea urchin encrustation or stibnite on a tan rock? 🤔

📷mine from Cranbrook Institute of Science

#MinCup25
Light brown matrix holds clusters of black stinnite, looking like a sea urchin encrustation.
September 18, 2025 at 10:34 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Stibnite! It has tons of uses, including: alloys, paint, textiles, ceramics, batteries, matches, semiconductor industry, antimonial compounds, and electronics.

#MinCup25

📷 mine, Cranbrook Institute of Science
Black stibnite, with taller and twisted pieces toward the back and shorter pieces piled on top of one another in the foreground. Small stibnite sample that resembles a pile of black licorice left in the sun to melt just enough for it to stick together. Single black crystal that has a bend about halfway up. Large, thick and striated stibnite with natural termination and a bit of unnamed white crystallization on one end.
September 18, 2025 at 10:18 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
The problem is cuprosklodowskite is also really fun (in a don't lick, don't breathe it in) sort of way. Misnamed as the copper version of sklodowskite (named for the Marie Sklodowskite Curie), this little green radioactive mineral is pretty and makes crusty dolostone look good.
Rock covered in malachite with dark green tabular metatorbanite and grass green acicular cuprosklodowskite. Photo: Robert Lavinsky https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuprosklodowskite-112917.jpg#file Fluffy concentration of light green cuprosklodowskite needles. Dark yellow billietite is snuggled up against the spherical cuprosklodowskite. Photo:BLFrank https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuprosklodowskit,_Billietit,_Menzenschwand.jpg#mw-jump-to-license Pocket filled with light green spherical cuprosklodowskite clusters highlighted with yellow Guilleminite. Photo: Robert Lavinsky https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuprosklodowskite-Guilleminite-181021.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
September 14, 2025 at 11:37 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
If you cut down an active ikaite column, the pipeline of groundwater will forcefully continue rising toward the surface, and begin to rebuild ikaite immediately.
It makes pretty opal!
#MinCup25
www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/12...
www.gia.edu/gems-gemolog...
www.researchgate.net/figure/One-g...
Text from https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/12/11/1430 reads: "fjord, the sedimentary cover of the floor of the fjord is relatively thin and permeable and is punctuated by rock outcrops, which further allow groundwater to seep through (Figure 3) [8]. Indeed, both groundwater and air are seen to escape from the columns (Figure 4a), and when cut, large volumes of groundwater stream out and new growth of ikaite starts to form almost immediately (Figure 4b) [1,6]. As the groundwater has a lower density than seawater, the growth is upwards, enabling columns to grow up to the halocline, some being 2–3 m below sea surface (Figure 3), where brackish water no longer supplies sufficient Ca+ ions [1,6] for ikaite formation. In total, 938 columns of size 0.5 to 20 m tall were mapped from a multibeam sonar survey (Figure 2) providing GPS position, depth" Oral after calcite after ikaite! This gorgeous spiney rock is found in Australia! https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2023-gemnews-double-pseudomorph-ikaite-calcite-opal Water scaling from white at the top to deep blue at the bottom provides background for a tower built of light-colored lumpy ikaite. There are a few small towers around the spectacular column. The whole thing is growing from a mound on the seafloor. Ikiate tower in Ikka Fjord, ikaite's type locality. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/One-group-of-the-ikaite-tufa-columns-of-Ikka-Fjord-growing-on-top-of-a-syenitic-roches_fig3_390438140
September 14, 2025 at 11:15 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Voting for the beautiful blue #Azurite!
#Copper mineral.
Used for blue #pigment.
Besties with #malachite!
💙 #Arizona (former home state).
Makes caves more interesting with brilliant blue stalagmites/tites.

Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r1...

#MinCup25
📷 mine
Azurite stalagmites sliced perpendicular to the core, displaying various shades of blues in concentric bands. Cranbrook Institute of Science azurite. Interesting specimen with green malachite and dark blue azurite. Cranbrook Institute of Science Specimen with large, deepest blue azurite crystals on brown matrix and a bit of green malachite. Cranbrook Institute of Science This one looks like a sculpture. Thick, twisted blue azurite and green malachite trunks. Cranbrook Institute of Science
September 9, 2025 at 3:59 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Today's #MinCup25 #leucite!

Volcanic.
Adorable crystal shape.
Vesuvius type local.
Traps xls in growth zones.
Sometimes shows labradoresce.
Crystallizes in one habit...changes when cooled...then goes back to the original habit when reheated.

Doesn't catch on fire.

📷 mine from Cranbrook
Light gray volcanic matrix holds adorable trapezohedral leucite crystals. Wood block form and dark gray leucite crystal in trapezohedral habit.
September 6, 2025 at 4:18 AM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
"There is more than this."

**Heed the trigger warnings on StoryGraph!!**

I don't want to spoil this novel that will be with me for a long time. Characterized as horror, it has ghosts, but the Jim Crow South of 1950 and generational trauma are the real monsters.
Image of an audiobook cover featuring a small white building engulfed in fog, surrounded by dense brush, before an orange sky.
February 9, 2025 at 4:03 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
My new favorite rock!

I asked our (sadly closing) rock shop owner about a pallasite. It would cost around $7,000. 😱 But small bits were available!

Hugs has the appropriate response for a tiny bit of rock that hurtled into Earth’s atmosphere, plummeted to the ground, was collected, cut & polished.⚒️
Small thumbnail-sized pallasite, a metallic iron/nickel meteorite with large olivine crystals. Held by woman with dark blueish purple nails. Orange cat sniffing small pallasite (silver-colored iron-nickel meteorite with large green/orangish-green olivine crystals). Orange cat contemplating small pallasite (silver-colored iron-nickel meteorite with large green/orangish-green olivine crystals). Orange cat rolling to show his belly to a small pallasite (silver-colored iron-nickel meteorite with large green/orangish-green olivine crystals).
December 23, 2024 at 9:58 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
The feeling when you see your former mineralogy/volcanology professor on USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory YouTube discussing the current eruption in Kīlauea's Halema`uma`u caldera.

Love that he's continuing to teach w/temps, viscosity, gases, & comps to other volcanoes.

I miss Hawai'i. ⚒️
Dr. Ken Hon from the United States Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory discusses the current eruption at Kīlauea volcano. He is featured in the top left segment. Continuing down is an incandescent overall view of the caldera. Next is a geologic map displaying color-coded eruptive events. The largest block shows a zoomed-in video of fountaining. Below that are two alternate views of the caldera and temperature gage of Halem`aum`u.
December 23, 2024 at 8:35 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Sadly, our local rock shop is closing, but discounted merch is a needed serotonin booster.

2024 @mineralcup.bsky.social newbie celestine (w/blue 💅), zoisite w/ruby & hornblende, "banded iron formation"/"petrified wood" 🤔 (it was called both, but that doesn't make sense).
⚒️
Orange General Hugs sniffs a blue mineral celestine. It coincidentally complements my blue nail polish. Green zoisite, pinkish-red rubies and black hornblende. Stripey rock (that's a technical term 😉) with a thick band of red between alternating black and off-white layers. It was labeled as banded iron formation and petrified wood...which are not the same, at all. Orange cat sitting with new rock/mineral acquisitions of green zoisite, red iron-rich striped rock and blue celestine.
December 15, 2024 at 10:20 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Vote for Kamala Harris!

Women have to right to healthcare!

The former guy should remain in the past!

Down ballot races are equally important! Congress on nat'l & state level through school boards are foundational!

I'm a ball of anxiety.
Lawn sign supporting Kamala Harris in the United States presidential election. An illustrated black cat with large green eyes is knocking over the republican elephant with Trump's orange hair. Illustrated US presidential election sign featuring a black cat with big yellow/green eyes with its paws on a blue box saying "Cats for Kamala" 2024. Wearing a harness and leash is a gray and white cat who will be very grumpy if she has to listen to 4 more years of complaining about TFG.
November 5, 2024 at 2:11 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
My new #mineral friends!
Two zircon with different shapes and colors.
Slightly torn asunder spinel is a nod to my spinal surgeries.
I've always loved epidote green.
I wanted something from my adopted home state, so copper.
I cannot resist the pull of purple amethyst.

#geology 🧪⚒️
Collection of minerals. Back row, from left to right: dipyramidal reddish brown zircon, root beer brown square column zircon, purplish-burgundy spinel that has offset pyramids, moss green small crystalline epidote with clear quartz. The front row consists of amethyst with colorless quartz and a copper nugget. Purplish-burgundy spinel that seems to be two pyramids that have been pulled apart creating an interesting texture. Deep reddish-brown zircon composed of squared, stacked pyramids. Dark mossy green, small crystalline epidote with larger colorless quartz.
October 11, 2024 at 11:27 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Five years, not seven. Maybe I added a couple of years for how long the pandemic felt!? Or counting is hard? 🤣🤣🤣

I had to carry the box like this for the 10-minute walk home. Leia chewed a hole in the box. Once out of the box, the Tasmanian devil antics stopped and a sweet cuddly cat reappeared.
Woman holding large cardboard box with holes and a handle for transporting a small animal. Image of the cardboard box with a hole in one corner that was created by a cat chewing and clawing her way out of the box.
October 6, 2024 at 1:07 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Happy Gotcha Day to Leia! 7 years ago I walked to an adopt-a-pet event. I brought home a year-ish-old cat who had recently had babies but was found alone.
She growls menacingly, is chatty, goes outside w/a leash, enjoys playing with the boys, and has been sad since we lost Mara.
We ❤️ our Bug!
Gray and white cat, sat upon a platform of diet coke, lovingly licks a smaller black cat's head. On a green plastic outdoor table are a bunch of quartz/quartz containing minerals and rocks. There is also a galena sample set apart from the rocks. With gentle human assistance, a gray and white cat with bright two-toned green eyes, a black harness and leash is laying down near the rocks. Gray and white cat sitting on stairs reaching her paw towards the camera while licking her lips. Green-eyed gray and white cat plopped on the shade-covered ground during a walk around the yard.
October 5, 2024 at 3:32 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
General Hugs is disappointed in your actions. He's also doing the kitty-loaf-pose and is a happy boy.

Today a new box was delivered, initiating "Who gets the box?" excitement.
Leia claimed the box while Obi approached with an out-of-the-box solution.
(I couldn't resist.)
#Cats
Orange cat with golden amber eyes looking down and to the side as if he's disappointed in your actions. Orange cat with golden amber eyes relaxed in kitty-loaf-pose at the top of the cat tree. Gray and white cat sitting in a box that has been tipped on its side. A black cat is sitting on top of the box.
October 2, 2024 at 9:22 PM
blastylavagrrrl.bsky.social
Obi and Hugs want to get out the #MinCup24 cat vote! They're both wearing their best spooky season bow-tie collars and want to share the field guide entry about #kyanite.

They appreciate the mineral's stretched appearance and metamorphic tattle-TAIL antics.

#MinCup #Cats
Obsidian, a small black cat sits at attention. He has an orange spooky season bow tie collar, the bow is black which means it's barely visible (it's the curled flappy thing on his right shoulder). Against the background of a messy desk, is a field guide book opened on the pages for kyanite. Orange cat with golden amber eyes is wearing his spooky season purple and black bow tie collar. He looks a bit confused. A field guide book opened to the kyanite entry is propped against a covered sewing machine with a Star Wars Chewbacca cat toy as the bookmark.
October 1, 2024 at 4:54 PM