Transcript Slide 1

Aim: What is a Mineral?
Do Now:
Minerals are used in everyday life. In
your notebooks, try to brainstorm
about ways minerals are used by
you and me every day.
I. Minerals:
Minerals are classified as…
a. Naturally occurring – Forms by natural
geologic processes.
b. Solid substance
c. Orderly crystalline structure – atoms are
arranged in an orderly and repetitive
manner.
Fluorite
d. Definite chemical composition – most are
made up of two or more elements.
e. Generally considered Inorganic – not living
(exception calcite, which comes from living
things).
Garnet
II. How do Minerals Form?
There are 3 major processes
by which minerals from:
1. Crystallization
Galena
crystallize = to form a crystal
- hot material (magma/lava) cools,
- elements within the combine (come
together) and harden to form minerals.
2. Precipitates/Evaporites
- solid substances are dissolved in water
- When the water evaporates, these solids are left
behind to form crystals.
Like Rock Candy or the ring around your bathtub
Salt Flat - Halite
Limestone Cave
3. Hydrothermal Solutions
- Very hot solutions cause chemical reactions with
existing minerals to form new minerals.
Pyrite
Quartz
III. Tetrahedral Crystalline Structure
- Silicon and Oxygen
combine to form
a structure called the
Silicon-Oxygen
Tetrahedron.
**This structure is found in
Quartz and makes it the
most abundant mineral.
Review Questions:
1) What are the five characteristics of all minerals?
Minerals are naturally occurring, inorganic,
solids, with definite crystal shape and definite
composition.
2) Where does the material come from to undergo crystallization?
The material comes from the inside of the Earth
or a volcanic eruption. The material has to be
extremely hot!
3) Explain the process of the formation of a precipitate.
Material needs to be dissolved in water. Later, the
water is evaporated leaving the mineral behind.
Solid materials can not be evaporated like water.
Aim: What properties do minerals
have?
Do Now: How can a scientist tell
the difference between different
minerals? List some of the
properties you would look for to
classify a mineral.
Use your ESRT page 16 to help
determine useful properties.
I. Properties of Minerals
Depend on:
1) The chemical composition of the mineral.
(the elements)
2) How the mineral’s atoms are arranged
internally (structure).
**All mineral properties depend on the atoms
that make-up the mineral**
Non-Metallic
We will take notes on each
section of this table
Take out Page 16 of your ESRT
1. Color (least significant property)
- Small amounts of different elements
(impurities) can give the same mineral different
colors.
Why is color the least significant property?
Quartz
2. Streak
- the color of a mineral in its powdered
form.
- found by rubbing a mineral across a streak
plate (a piece of porcelain.)
- A minerals streak is
identified as either;
Color – any color
Colorless – clear, white or no streak
3. Luster
- describes how light is reflected from the
surface of a mineral.
What words would you use to
describe non-metallic minerals?
Metallic
Pyrite
Galena
vs.
Non-Metallic
Sulfur
Feldspar
4. Crystal Form
- the visible expression of a mineral’s
internal arrangement of atoms.
Garnet
Quartz
Calcite
5. Hardness
- the resistance of a mineral to being
scratched.
- Mohs scale consists of 10
minerals arranged from
10 (hardest) to 1 (softest).
- determined using a glass plate.
How to find the hardness:
• Hold the glass plate flat on the
table.
• Use a clean un-scratched
surface.
• The mineral should be scratched
against the glass plate once with
some pressure.
1. If it scratches the glass, then
the mineral is harder
2. If it doesn’t scratch the glass,
then the mineral is softer.
Copy these last two for
your notes on hardness.
6. Cleavage
- the tendency of a mineral to break (cleave)
along flat, even surfaces.
- Minerals appear to have right angles, flat
surfaces, boxed appearance.
Mica
Calcite
7. Fracture
- the uneven breakage of a mineral.
Sulfur
Quartz
8. Distinctive Properties of Minerals
- Some minerals can be recognized by other
distinctive properties (magnetism, smell)
- Effervescence (bubbling)
using Hydrochloric Acid indicates the
presence of calcium (Calcite.)
Closure
Take a blue lab from the back top bin. With your
partner, begin to answer the vocabulary.
REMEMBER you are trying to do this from what
you learned and recall, NOT from copying it out of
your book.