Chapter 6 Lesson 1 Minerals and Rocks Pages 136-143

Please Do Now! In the margin of your paper, make a list of all the different colors of rocks you’ve ever seen. Share your list with a partner and compare which colors are on both your lists.

1. Nonliving, natural substances that make up rock are called minerals.

There are more than 3,000 kinds of minerals with different properties There are more than 3,000 kinds of minerals with different properties. A property is a characteristic that describes something.

2. Minerals can be identified by their properties: color, hardness, luster, and streak.

Minerals can be many different colors or the same color.

HARDNESS Hardness refers to a mineral’s ability to scratch another mineral or be scratched by another mineral. Each mineral is numbered one to ten. Mohs’ Hardness Scale

LUSTER Luster refers to the way light bounces off the surface of a mineral. Minerals may be metallic (shiny), dull, glossy, or pearly in luster.

STREAK A mineral’s streak is the color of the powder left behind when it is scratched on a white tile.

3. Minerals are the building blocks of rocks.

4. Minerals offer clues about how a rock forms.

The three main types of rocks are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.

5. A rock that forms from melted rock is igneous rock.

6. Melted rock, called magma, cools and hardens to form igneous rock.

7. Igneous rocks are classified by how quickly they cool and the size of the mineral grains that form.

8. Layers of substances are pressed and cemented together to form sedimentary rock.

9. Scientists compare the position of layered rocks to find a rock’s relative age.

10. A rock layer and any fossils in that rock have the same relative age.

11. Heat and pressure form metamorphic rock.

12. Metamorphic rocks can form from igneous and sedimentary rocks, or from other metamorphic rocks.

13. Metamorphic rocks are different than their original form because their properties change.

14. Rocks change from one form to another in the rock cycle.

The Rock Cycle

15. People use rocks and minerals as resources.

16. Rocks and minerals are used for building schools and other structures, and to make steel, aluminum products, silicon chips, and jewelry.

Critical Thinking Which type of rock (metamorphic, sedimentary, or igneous) do you think is most useful?

Critical Thinking Sedimentary rocks are the most useful. They can be used to make glass, bricks, china, pottery, chalk, and building blocks.