MINERALS The building blocks of rocks….. Did any of you use minerals before coming to school this morning??? I sure hope so!!
All of these items used to build a house are made of minerals!
How Minerals Affect Your Life The Average American will use - 30,415 pounds of salt 1.7 million pounds of stone, sand and gravel 83,890 gallons of petroleum 42,581 pounds of iron ore 1,078 pounds of lead **Total – 3.75 million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels in your lifetime!!
MINERALS = a naturally occurring, inorganic solid with a definite chemical composition and a particular crystalline structure (orderly arrangement of atoms)
1) Naturally occurring Formed in processes on or in the earth with no human input
2) Inorganic Not made by living process *It has never been alive! Amber and sugar are not minerals because they formed from living things.
3) Definite chemical composition All minerals are elements or compounds with definite chemical composition ex) mineral halite (NaCl) has a distinctive salty taste -Copper (Cu) - Beryl (Be 3 Al 2 Si 6 A 18)
4) Crystal Structure The atoms of the mineral are arranged in patterns that repeat over and over again. ex) Graphite versus Diamond
Uses of Minerals…. Ores - used for metals, extracted by mining (ex. iron) Gems – rare and beautiful, often used for jewelry
Now let’s master minerals!! What are some physical properties we know? Here are physical properties we will use to identify minerals:
Color This is an easy clue, but it can be misleading. Many different minerals have the same color and appearance… ex) pyrite and gold
Hardness A measure of how easily a mineral can be scratched. Mohs Hardness Scale Diamond is the hardest mineral. On a scale from 1-10, diamond is a 10!
Luster The way the mineral reflects light. Either metallic or non-metallic. Nonmetallic can be: Dull, Pearly, Silky, and Glassy
Streak The color of the mineral in the powdered form. Gold has a yellowish streak. Pyrite has a greenish- black streak.
Cleavage and Fracture Cleavage – mineral that break along a smooth, flat surface (ex. Mica) Not all minerals have cleavage… Fracture – minerals that break with uneven, rough, or jagged surfaces (ex. Halite)
Other Properties: Some minerals are magnetic. (Magnetite) Some react with HCl (Calcite) Salty Taste (Halite) - many minerals are poisonous, so DON’T TASTE THEM!! Sulfur has a smell like rotten eggs.
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