[Rockhounds] Hey Nerds: It's Time for the Annual Mineral Cup

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Each September brings the annual Mineral Cup, a fierce competition to
determine Twitter’s favorite mineral. This year’s contest is well underway,
with kaolinite narrowly beating schorl in the first matchup.

In 2017, University of Hull geology professor Eddie Dempsey claimed that
quartz was the best mineral after tweeting a picture of a geologic outcrop.
His followers had some contrary opinions, and in order to prove himself
right, the Mineral Cup was born. The Mineral Cup is an annual
single-elimination tournament to determine which mineral reigns supreme.
Mika McKinnon took over Mineral Cup responsibilities in 2020 and, with the
help of 25 volunteers across the world, has officially kicked off this
year’s tournament.

Mineral Cup has grown year after year, racking up nearly 11,000 followers
on its official Twitter account. “This is a hunch based on our
interactions, but I would say that about a third of the people
participating have some formal connection to geoscience, and two-thirds
have zero connection to geoscience,” McKinnon said. “The vast majority of
people have no geoscience background.” McKinnon explained that people cast
votes for all sorts of reason—even if it’s as simple as the mineral’s name
being cool.

https://gizmodo.com/2022-mineral-cup-twitter-1849486441