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What is a mineral?

What is a mineral?. Naturally Occurring Inorganic Solid Specific Chemical Composition Characteristic Crystal Structure Regular geometric arrangement of atoms. Mineral Properties. Crystal form/Growth habit Luster Hardness Specific Gravity Streak Cleavage Fracture Color

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What is a mineral?

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  1. What is a mineral? • Naturally Occurring • Inorganic Solid • Specific Chemical Composition • Characteristic Crystal Structure • Regular geometric arrangement of atoms

  2. Mineral Properties • Crystal form/Growth habit • Luster • Hardness • Specific Gravity • Streak • Cleavage • Fracture • Color • Other Properties

  3. Crystal Form/Growth Habit • Shape that occurs when a mineral grows freely • Acicular – needle-like • Globular – hemispherical masses • Fibrous – extremely slender prisms • Octahedral – eight sided • Radiating – radiating outward from a central point 

  4. Luster • A description of the way light interacts with the surface of a crystal or mineral • Metallic: This has a shiny surface, resembling polished metal. Reflective. • Non-metallic: This as a surface that does not shine or reflect light well.

  5. Hardness • Ameasure of how much a mineral resists being scratched. • We use Mohs scale of hardness to rate the hardness of minerals. • Devised by German mineralogist, FrederichMohs • Scale is arbitrary

  6. FOR THIS LAB: You can use the following materials and the list of the hardnesses of them to determine hardness for each mineral.

  7. Specific Gravity (SG) • The ratio of the density of a given solid or liquid substance to the density of water at a specific temperature and pressure, typically at 4°C (39°F) and 1 atm (14.7 psi). • Value is dimensionless, there are no units

  8. Streak • The color of the powder left when scratched across a porcelain plate

  9. Cleavage • Description of how a mineral breaks • To determine what is a cleavage plane look for the following: • A smooth break along a crystal plane • A reproducible face—the mineral is broken along the same faces multiple times in one sample • Describe cleavage using: perfect, imperfect, good, distinct, indistinct, and poor

  10. Cleavage

  11. Fracture • If there is no plane of weakness, then the breaks will not be the same • Conchoidal fracture swirls • Non-Conchoidal fracture has no pattern

  12. Color

  13. Other Properties • Reacts with Acid • Salty • Magnetic • Labradorescence

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