Naturally occurring Inorganic Solid Crystalline structure Specific physical and chemical properties

Amethyst

clear Quartz mineral green Olivine mineral in igneous basalt rock

Minerals are made up of atoms of elements There are over different types of minerals on Earth – most minerals are “silicate” minerals (made up of silicon & oxygen) Carbonates, Sulfides, and Iron Oxides

2 main ways that new mineral crystals grow: Some minerals form when molten rock below a planet’s surface (magma) or above (lava), cools and atoms bond together into mineral crystals Other minerals form when water that has atoms of dissolved elements in it, evaporates away -- the atoms get very close to each other and bond together to form solid minerals

Luster (metallic or non-metallic) Hardness (hard or soft) Cleavage / Fracture (way the mineral splits) Streak (powder color of mineral)

CLEAVAGE

3 crystals of quartz mineral show how the same mineral can have different colors!

Fluorescence is a physical process. For a mineral to fluoresce, ultraviolet (UV) light (electromagnetic radiation) of one wavelength strikes a fluorescent mineral and “activates” it, that causes light to come out of that mineral at another longer wavelength. When those wavelengths reach the “visible spectrum”, we see the different wavelengths as different BRIGHT colors. Fluorite Mineral Electromagnetic Spectrum

video of time decay of mineral fluorescence