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Mineral Formation

Mineral Formation. Pages 56-66. How do Minerals Form?. Recall that minerals form through naturally occurring processes There are two main ways: When melted materials cool Dissolved in water. Cool Your Crystals. Minerals form as liquid rock cools, either inside the crust or outside

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Mineral Formation

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  1. Mineral Formation Pages 56-66

  2. How do Minerals Form? • Recall that minerals form through naturally occurring processes • There are two main ways: • When melted materials cool • Dissolved in water.

  3. Cool Your Crystals • Minerals form as liquid rock cools, either inside the crust or outside • Magma: molten material below the crust • Lava: magma that reaches the surface.

  4. Cool Your Crystals • Deeper in the earth, magma cools slowly. Slow cooling means bigger crystals. Olivine cools at 1200 degrees Celsius

  5. Cool Your Crystals • Faster cooling occurs closer to or at the surface. This means smaller crystals. Quartz cools 700 degrees Celsius

  6. Sizing Up the Problem • Problem:How does the cooling temperature affect crystal size? • Hypothesis: • Minerals that cool at a higher temperature have larger crystals. • Minerals that cool at a lower temperature have smaller crystals.

  7. Hot Water Solutions • Some elements dissolve into hot water below Earth’s surface • This creates a solution: • A mixture in which one substances dissolves in another.

  8. Hot Water Solutions • Heated water solution races upwards through cracks in the rock • In the cracks, they crystallize to form veins: -- Narrow channels or slabs of minerals that are very different from the surrounding rock.

  9. Formation by Evaporation • Minerals also form out of solution when the water evaporates. • This is what happens when salt water evaporates, leaving only the salt behind.

  10. Mineral Deposits • Ore: a mineral that contains a metal or economically useful mineral. • Prospecting: searching for an ore deposit. • Geologists use features and rocks on the surface.

  11. Mining • Mining – looking for ore deposits • Strip Mine • Shaft Mines • Open Pit Mines

  12. Mining • Strip Mine • Earth moving equipment scrapes away soil to expose ore.

  13. Mining • Shaft Mines - network of tunnels that extend deep into the ground following the veins of ores.

  14. TauTona 3.9 kilometers deep

  15. Mining • Open Pit Mines - use giant earthmoving equipment to dig a huge pit.

  16. Uses of Minerals • Gemstones • Metals • Glass • Cement • Alloy

  17. How can we tell one mineral from another?

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