GEOLOGY: Minerals and Resources
Rocks/Mineral characteristics
-a rock can contain more than one mineral -a mineral is composed of chemical elements -a single rock can include more than one mineral
What determines if a rock is an ore?
-the grade of the ore -the type of ore, such as oxide vs sulfide types -size and depth of the mineral deposit -the location of the deposit
Minerals have an ordered internal atomic arrangement. What does that mean?
Atoms in a mineral are arranged in an ordered geometric pattern
Mohs Hardness Scale
Lists that consists of 10 common mineral ranked in order of increasing hardness from 1 to 10
A mineral is light colored, transparent, has a hardness of 7 and fractures rather than cleaves. What mineral am I?
Quartz
What characteristic of water helps it cause a mineral, such as halite, to dissolve?
The polar nature of the water molecule
How do silica tetrahedral bond in silicate minerals?
With each other by sharing an oxygen, with other elements such as potassium, in single or double chains, and in sheets
This very common carbonate mineral effervesces when it contacts dilute HCl. What mineral am I?
calcite
A mineral property that can be observed without using a test is ....
cleavage
What mineral property is the least reliable for identifying a mineral?
color
What are two main ways that minerals are put into rocks?
crystalline and clastic
What are tests that we can quickly and easily perform to help us identify a mineral?
hardness, effervescence, streak, and magnetism tests
Non-minerals
liquid water, crystals grown in a lab, volcanic glass, piece of wood
Anions have gained electrons and so have a _________
negative charge
If a mineral fractures, how many directions of cleavage does it have?
no directions of cleavage
Minerals that don't contain silicon are classified as...
nonsilicates
The mineral halite has cube-shaped crystals because...
of the arrangement of atoms in the crystal lattice
Cations have loaned out electrons and so have a _________
positive charge
If a mineral lacks planes along which it may cleave, what will occur?
the mineral will fracture in an irregular pattern
