this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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Geology

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For all things geology, including serious discussions, memes, field photos, rockhound questions, and more. See also: Mining, Geophysics, Geology Careers, and !earthscience@mander.xyz

General rules: must be geoscience related; must adhere to lemmy.ca moderation rules; no pseudoscience.

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Hi folks. All 90 of you. Two weeks in and we're at 90. It's a far cry from the 173k on r/geology.

tl;dr: is it okay so far?

So far it's been mostly me, just trying to populate the community on a somewhat regular basis to keep the snowball rolling. And I just wanted to ask, is it okay that I'm doing pretty much exactly this? I know that the 90:10 rule applies here, maybe even more so until network effects take over. But I worry that I'm shouting into the void. Is there anybody out there? Just nod if you can hear me.

Assuming it's okay to keep shouting into the void as though this community is my personal blog, for the time being, is there anything you'd like to see? Exactly one of the posts gained any traction (the equivalent of hitting the Reddit front-page), but that doesn't necessarily reflect on what you, all 90 subscribers, want to see here while you're doomscrolling.

So I'm begging you, try licking this clear rock here. It's probably not salt, because it isn't cubic. And all the undergrads have been dropping HCl on it to see if it effervesces, so it's probably sour now from all that acid. Maybe it's a sugar crystal I grew in my coffee cup, suspended on a string and I'm hoodwinking you all. Meow.

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[–] MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm here. I love geology. Can you gimme something on ne u.s. during the Cambrian explosion?

Getting into geo Wikipedia holes is about the extent of my knowledge though.

Keep doing what your doing for sure!

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Can you gimme something on ne u.s. during the Cambrian explosion?

Probably not, unless it's the Google results that you could equally easily find. I don't live anywhere near the region, and I'm actually a geophysicist. I can tell you about the electrical properties of clay and why it makes a bad material for doing ground penetrating radar haha.

But I'd be happy if you posted cool things you found during your own wiki dives, or questions. As the population grows, the likelihood of finding someone who knows goes up. And any spawned discussions help with network effects.

You may also want to check out !earthscience@mander.xyz and !palaeontology@mander.xyz -- the mander.xyz server is largely science topics.

[–] FarceMultiplier@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll join, though I'm just a low-knowledge rock picker.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Excellent. I hereby designate you Rock Picker in Residence. Feel free to post photos of fun things you find. :)

[–] FarceMultiplier@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Will do! I'm in the process of moving from rural western Canada to the Vancouver area and hope to find a group to pick with.

[–] zpnrg1979@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm here, lurking. Make a rock ID thread!

Maybe I'll go out to my collection and put up some tests.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Haha, okay ;)

[–] Steak@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I live in Northern Ontario and love rocks and hiking but know almost nothing about them. Is there anything cool i should be keeping an eye out for on my hike's? I hike on the Canadian shield regularly.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

All rocks are cool, but some are cooler than others. If you're on North Shore of Superior, you might be able to find dark red or purple quartz (aka Amethyst), particularly around Thunder Bay. Whereabouts do you go hiking usually?