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Understanding Minerals: Formation, Properties, and Identification

Explore the world of minerals in Earth Science, learning about their formation, key properties, and how to identify them. Discover crystal structures, silicate and non-silicate minerals, and methods like color, streak, luster, cleavage, hardness, special properties, and more.

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Understanding Minerals: Formation, Properties, and Identification

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  1. Chapter 5.2 – 5.4Minerals Earth Science

  2. Minerals • Mineral – A mineral is any material that… • 1. Is a Solid • 2. Is Inorganic • 3. Is Naturally Occurring • 4. Has a Fixed Chemical Composition • 5. Atoms Are Arranged in Orderly Pattern

  3. Minerals and How They Form

  4. Critical Thinking #1 • Is water a mineral? Why or why not? • Is a seashell a mineral? Why or why not? • Is plastic a mineral? Why or why not?

  5. Minerals • Crystal Form • Many minerals possess a crystalline form – regular geometric shapes with smooth faces

  6. Crystal Structures

  7. Two Types of Minerals • Silicates • Contains Silicon (Si) and Oxygen (O) • 90% of Earth’s Crust

  8. Two Types of Minerals • Non-Silicates • No Combination of Silicon (Si) and Oxygen (O) • Common Non-Silicates • Carbonates (Carbon + Oxygen) • Oxides (Iron or Aluminum + Oxygen) • Sulfates (Sulfur + Oxygen)

  9. Identifying Minerals • Color • Easily observed, but… the same minerals can vary in color • ex: Sulfur = Yellow • Quartz = Clear, Purple, Green, Red etc.

  10. Colors of Quartz Clear Quartz Amethyst Rose Quartz

  11. Critical Thinking #2 • Is color a good way to identify minerals? Why or why not?

  12. Identifying Minerals • Streak • The color of a mineral in powdered form • More reliable than color

  13. Identifying Minerals • Luster • How a mineral reflects light • Metallic – reflective, silver or gold color, found in most metals

  14. Identifying Minerals • Nonmetallic Luster – not reflective • Vitreous – glassy • Silky – fibrous • Resinous – yellow, dark brown • Waxy • Pearly • Earthy – dull, looks like clay

  15. Identifying Minerals • Cleavage • Minerals break along a smooth, flat surface • Fracture (No Cleavage) • Minerals break unevenly along an irregular surface

  16. Critical Thinking #3 • From your experience, do most minerals fracture or demonstrate some type of cleavage? Explain your reasoning.

  17. Identifying Minerals • Hardness • Mohs Scale – (1-10) Softest to Hardest • 1- Talc (Softest) • 10 – Diamond (Hardest)

  18. Identifying Minerals Two More Methods • Malleability: How well the mineral can be hammered into shape. • Ductility: How well the material can be drawn out into a thin wire without crumbling.

  19. Critical Thinking #4 • Based on the hardness scale, how would the scale need to be adjusted if a new mineral was discovered that was harder than a diamond?

  20. Identifying Minerals • Special Properties • Fluorescence – glow under ultraviolet radiation • Chemical Reactions – fizz when combined with acid • Optical Properties – double image formed • Magnetism – ex: Magnetite is magnetic • Taste ex: Halite (salt) tastes salty • Radioactivity – contains radium or uranium

  21. Critical Thinking #5 • Which special properties tests would be difficult to conduct? Which would be easy?

  22. Major Silicates: Quartz • Glassy or greasy luster • Colorless or white (some variations) • Conchoidal or irregular fracture • Mohs scale 7 • Found in granite and other rocks

  23. Feldspars • Two directions of cleavage • Hardness scale 6 • Pearly luster • Contains aluminum plagioclase orthoclase

  24. Other Silicates amphibole pyroxene mica olivine

  25. Carbonates limestone marble calcite

  26. Oxides and Sulfides magnetite hematite Pyrite (fool's gold)

  27. Archimedes Principle If an object can displace the volume of water equal to the weight of the object, it will float.

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