Mineral Cup Round 1: Mellite vs Omphacite
Today's contenders are both named for Greek foods, but that's where the resemblance stops!
https://www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1m10
This honeystone is found in brown coal, and likely formed from the same plant material!
Name: After Greek μέλι, "honey".
Bling: Soft and light like its namesake, mellite polishes up nicely. Also - conchoidal fracture!
Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0
Didier Descouens. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Check off your bingo cards, it's our yearly pyroxene representative! This tough mineral cosies up with garnet and silicas in our upper mantle.
Name: After Ancient Greek ὄμφᾰξ, "unripe grape or olive".
Bling: Shades of green, often similar to jade (which it is chemically almost identical to - just sprinkle in some calcium and iron).
Uses: Makes up subducted oceanic crust, so thank it for its role in our plate tectonics!
Jamie Cheshire. Public domain.
James St. John. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.