Mineral Identification

Mineral Identification

Objective

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

Enduring Understanding

• Minerals are the building blocks of rocks.

Mineral Identification

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

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

Mineral Properties

• Color is one of the most noticeable but least reliable characteristics

Mineral Properties

• Sometimes caused by the presence of trace elements or compounds

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

Mineral Properties

• Streak is easily determined by rubbing the mineral across an unglazed porcelain plate

Mineral Properties

• Streak is used to distinguish pyrite from gold

Mineral Properties

• Streak is used to distinguish pyrite from gold

Mineral Properties

• Luster is the way a mineral reflects light from its surface and is caused by differences in mineral chemical compositions

Mineral Properties

• Either metallic or nonmetallic (dull, pearly, waxy, silky)

Mineral Properties

• Texture describes how a mineral feels to the touch– Rough, smooth, ragged, greasy, soapy, glassy

Mineral Properties

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

Mineral Properties

• The Mohs hardness scale is used to compare a sample to the hardness of ten known minerals

Mineral Properties

• Cleavage determines whether a mineral will split easily and evenly along one or more flat planes

Mineral Properties

• Mica has perfect cleavage in one direction

• Halite has cubic cleavage (3 planes)

Mineral Properties

• Fracture means the mineral is tightly bonded and breaks with rough or jagged edges– Quartz has fracture

Mineral Properties

• Specific Gravity compares the weight of the mineral to an equal volume of water at 4 degrees C

Mineral Properties

• Special Properties such as light reflection and reactions to acids are also useful tools

Mineral Properties

• Calcite fizzles when in contact with HCl

Mineral Properties

• Calcite also can cause double images

Mineral Properties

• Magnetite will attract iron

Mineral Properties

• Sulfur produces a rotten egg odor

MINERALS GENERAL NOTES

Minerals

•Minerals have four characteristics

4

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

Living

Inorganic—not made by life processes

Element or compound with a definite chemical composition

Orderly arrangement of atoms; all minerals are crystalline solids

Crystal—solid with atoms arranged in orderly, repeating patterns

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

When magma cools slowly, crystals are large.

When magma cools quickly, crystals are small.

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

• 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.

DISCUSSION QUESTION:• What processes can cause crystals to form?

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.

Mineral Identification

• Color and appearance are not enough to distinguish most minerals.

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

1. Talc - easily scratched by the fingernail 2. Gypsum - just scratched by the fingernail 3. Calcite - scratches and is scratched by a copper coin 4. Fluorite - not scratched by a copper coin and does not

scratch glass 5. Apatite - just scratches glass and is easily scratched by a

knife 6. Orthoclase - easily scratches glass and is just scratched by a

file 7. Quartz - (amethyst, citrine, tiger's-eye, aventurine) not

scratched by a file 8. Topaz - scratched only by corundum and diamond 9. Corundum - (sapphires and rubies) scratched only by a

diamond 10.Diamond - scratched only by another diamond

1 - Talc

2 - Gypsum

3 - Calcite

4 - Flourite

5 - Apatite

6 - Orthoclase

7 - Quartz

8 - Topaz

9 - Corundum

10 - Diamond

• The way a mineral reflects light is its luster.• Luster can be metallic or nonmetallic

• Nonmetallic lusters include dull, pearly, silky, and glassy.

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.

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

The way a mineral breaks can be a distinguishing characteristic.

Minerals with cleavage break along smooth, flat surfaces.

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

Some minerals have unique properties that involve light or magnetism.

DISCUSSION QUESTION:• What are five properties that could be

examined to identify a mineral?

DISCUSSION QUESTION:• What are five properties that could be

examined to identify a mineral? hardness, luster, specific gravity, streak,

cleavage, and fracture

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Calcite is a hard carbonate mineral

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

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

Halite – the mineral sodium chloride also known as table salt