Minerals

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Minerals
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Minerals

• Minerals are naturally occurring, solid,
  crystalline, inorganic substances with a definite
  chemical composition.

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Minerals

• Minerals might be made of one element, such as
• Gold
• Silver
• Copper
• Diamond

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Minerals

• but most minerals are made of more than one
  element combined together
• Ruby Al2O3 Cr
• Emerald Be3Al2(SiO3)6
• Feldspar KAlSi3O8 NaAlSi3O8 CaAl2Si2O8
• Sapphire Al2O3 V, Ti, or Fe (for purple,
  white, or yellow/green)
• Halite NaCl

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Minerals

• Most minerals end in the word ite to identify
  it as a mineral.
• Malechite
• Hematite
• Magnetite
• Pyrite
• Halite
• Graphite
• Wolframite

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Minerals

• There are about 3700 different types of minerals
  on the earth that we know of, and about 100 new
  minerals are discovered each year.

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Minerals

• The most common minerals on earth are
• Quartz (most common on Earths surface)
• Feldspar (most common, in crust, but is a
  combination of several different types of
  minerals.)
• Olivine (Most common in the mantle)

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Minerals

• The most rare minerals in the Earth are
• PAINITE (18 exist)
• SERENDIBITE
• POUDRETTEITE
• GRANDIDIERITE
• JEREMEJEVITE
• RED BERYL
• TAAFFEITE
• BENITOITE

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Mineral properties

• Minerals are identified by the properties that
  they have.
• Just like each element has its own set of
  properties that help identify it, each mineral
  has its own properties.

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Minerals - properties

• Luster tells how well a mineral reflects light.
• A minerals luster might be
• Metallic (shiny like a metal)
• Nonmetallic (not very shiny)
• Waxy
• Vitreous (glassy)
• Pearly
• Oily
• Adamantine (brilliant like diamond)

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Minerals - properties

• Hardness describes how hard it is to scratch the
  mineral.
• The Mohs hardness scale is used to find the
  hardness of a mineral.

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Minerals - properties

• Cleavage describes how the mineral breaks. (Does
  it break along certain planes?)

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Minerals - properties

• Color is important in identifying most minerals.

Ruby
Sapphire
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Minerals - properties

• But color can be deceptive

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Minerals - properties

• Streak is the color that the mineral is when it
  is a powder.
• A streak plate is used to find a minerals streak
  color.

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Minerals - properties

• Other properties that might be used to identify
  minerals include
• Magnetism (tiny bits of magnetite in migrating
  birds)
• Reaction with certain chemicals
• Smell
• Taste
• Flourescence
• Crystal structure

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Minerals ? Rocks

• Minerals combine to form rocks
• Mineral mineral rock

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Rocks

• Rocks dont have a definite chemical composition
  like minerals do because theyre made of lots of
  pieces of different minerals all hooked
  together.

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Rocks

• There are 3 main types of rocks
• Sedimentary
• Igneous
• Metamorphic