1. Mineral Identification

2. Objective
3 Define chemical and physical properties of minerals to include luster, hardness, cleavage, fracture, streak, color, specific gravity, and special traits.

3. Enduring Understanding
Minerals are the building blocks of rocks.

4. Mineral Identification
With more than 3,000 minerals in Earth’s crust how does one go about identifying an unknown mineral?

5. Mineral Identification
Geologists rely on several simple tests that are based on a mineral’s physical and chemical properties. It is usually best to use a combination of tests rather than just one to identify minerals

6. Mineral Properties
Color is one of the most noticeable but least reliable characteristics

7. Mineral Properties Quartz
Sometimes caused by the presence of trace elements or compounds
Quartz

8. Mineral Properties
Streak is the color of the mineral when it is broken up into a powder and is a much more reliable identification method because it rarely changes
Both of these samples are hematite; both have a reddish-brown streak

9. Mineral Properties
Streak is easily determined by rubbing the mineral across an unglazed porcelain plate

10. Mineral Properties
Streak is used to distinguish pyrite from gold

11. Mineral Properties Pyrite Gold
Streak is used to distinguish pyrite from gold
Pyrite
Gold

12. Mineral Properties
Luster is the way a mineral reflects light from its surface and is caused by differences in mineral chemical compositions

13. Mineral Properties
Either metallic or nonmetallic (dull, pearly, waxy, silky)

14. Mineral Properties Texture describes how a mineral feels to the touch
Rough, smooth, ragged, greasy, soapy, glassy

15. Mineral Properties
Hardness is a measure of how easily a mineral can be scratched and is determined by the arrangement of it’s atoms.

16. Mineral Properties
The Mohs hardness scale is used to compare a sample to the hardness of ten known minerals

17. Mineral Properties
Cleavage determines whether a mineral will split easily and evenly along one or more flat planes

18. Mineral Properties Mica has perfect cleavage in one direction
Halite has cubic cleavage (3 planes)

19. Mineral Properties
Fracture means the mineral is tightly bonded and breaks with rough or jagged edges
Quartz has fracture

20. Mineral Properties
Specific Gravity compares the weight of the mineral to an equal volume of water at 4 degrees C

21. Mineral Properties
Special Properties such as light reflection and reactions to acids are also useful tools

22. Mineral Properties
Calcite fizzles when in contact with HCl

23. Mineral Properties
Calcite also can cause double images

24. Mineral Properties
Magnetite will attract iron

25. Mineral Properties
Sulfur produces a rotten egg odor

26. Minerals
General Notes

27. Minerals

28. Minerals
have four characteristics 4

29. Naturally occurring— formed by processes on or inside
Earth with no input from humans

30. Inorganic—
not made by life processes
Living

31. Element or compound with a
definite chemical composition

32. Orderly arrangement of atoms;
all minerals are crystalline solids

33. Crystal—solid with atoms arranged in orderly, repeating patterns

34. Some crystals form from magma, hot melted rock below the Earth’s surface.

35. When magma cools slowly, crystals are large.
When magma cools quickly, crystals are small.

36. Crystals can form from solutions as water evaporates or if too much of a substance is dissolved in water.

37. Mineral groups are defined by their composition.
Silicates contain silicon, oxygen, and one or more other elements; they include most common rock-forming minerals.
Silicon and oxygen are the two most abundant elements in Earth’s crust; they form the building blocks of many minerals.

38. DISCUSSION QUESTION:
What processes can cause crystals to form?

39. DISCUSSION QUESTION:
What processes can cause crystals to form?
Crystals form from cooling magma, from evaporating solutions, and from solutions in which too much of a substance is dissolved.

40. Mineral Identification
Color and appearance are not enough to distinguish most minerals.

41. Hardness is a measure of how easily a mineral can be scratched; the Moh’s scale compares mineral hardness.

42. Talc - easily scratched by the fingernail
Gypsum - just scratched by the fingernail
Calcite - scratches and is scratched by a copper coin
Fluorite - not scratched by a copper coin and does not scratch glass
Apatite - just scratches glass and is easily scratched by a knife
Orthoclase - easily scratches glass and is just scratched by a file
Quartz - (amethyst, citrine, tiger's-eye, aventurine) not scratched by a file
Topaz - scratched only by corundum and diamond
Corundum - (sapphires and rubies) scratched only by a diamond
Diamond - scratched only by another diamond

43. 1 - Talc

44. 2 - Gypsum

45. 3 - Calcite

46. 4 - Flourite

47. 5 - Apatite

48. 6 - Orthoclase

49. 7 - Quartz

50. 8 - Topaz

51. 9 - Corundum

52. 10 - Diamond

53. The way a mineral reflects light is its luster.
Luster can be metallic or nonmetallic
Nonmetallic lusters include dull, pearly, silky, and glassy.

54. Specific gravity is the relationship between a mineral’s density to the density of water. If the specific gravity is larger than one it will sink in water, if it is smaller than one it will float in water.

55. Streak is the color of a mineral in powdered form, but the streak test is useful only for minerals softer than the streak plate.

56. The way a mineral breaks can be a distinguishing characteristic.
Minerals with
cleavage break
along smooth,
flat surfaces.

57. Minerals with fracture break with uneven, rough, or jagged surfaces.

58. Some minerals have unique properties that involve light or magnetism.

59. DISCUSSION QUESTION:
What are five properties that could be examined to identify a mineral?

60. DISCUSSION QUESTION:
What are five properties that could be examined to identify a mineral?
hardness, luster, specific gravity, streak, cleavage, and fracture

61. Gems—rare and beautiful minerals that are highly prized
The Cullinan diamond
and the Hope diamond
are famous historical gems.
Gems have industrial
applications in abrasives,
lasers, and electronics.

62. Minerals can contain other useful elements.
An ore is a mineral or rock containing a substance that can be mined at a profit.
Elements must be refined, or purified, from ores.

63. Some elements dissolve in fluids, travel through weaknesses in rocks, and in those weaknesses form mineral deposits called vein mineral deposits.

64. Titanium is a useful element derived from the minerals ilmenite and rutile.

65. Mica is an example of a mineral with the characteristic of cleavage,
Mica is an example of a mineral with the characteristic of cleavage, because it can be separated into sheets.

66. Graphite is one of the softest minerals and is used in pencils.

67. Sulfur is a bright yellow mineral with
Sulfur is a bright yellow mineral with the distinctive odor of spoiled eggs.

68. Calcite is a hard carbonate mineral

69. Feldspar is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust

70. Hematite is an iron based mineral, colored black, silver-gray, reddish brown, or red.

71. Halite – the mineral sodium chloride also known as table salt