Download Minerals - Cobb Learning

A mineral is a solid, nonliving
material that is found in Earth.
They are made up of naturally occurring substances
called elements
 Properties:
 Solid
 Cannot be a liquid or a gas
 Naturally Occurring
 Found in nature, not man-made
 Inorganic
 Is not alive and never was, non-living
 Crystal Form/Crystalline Structure
 A definite structure in which atoms
are arranged (regular pattern)
 Is it non-living material?
 Is it a solid?
 Is it formed in nature?
 Does it have a crystalline structure?
Wood
Gold
Fossil
Topaz
Bones
Granite
Quartz
Pearls
Talc
Icebergs
Diamond
Coal
Rock Salt
 Minerals
 Non-Minerals
a) Gold
a) Wood - once living
b) Topaz
b) Fossils – once living
c) Quartz
c) Bone - living material
d) Talc
d) Granite - intrusive igneous rock
e) Iceberg*
e) Pearls – made by oysters
f)
Diamonds
Coal - Sedimentary rock
g) Rock Salt – Sedimentary rock
f)
According to IMA – ice is listed as a mineral
 Silicate
 Minerals that contain a
combination of silicon, oxygen
and one or more metals.
 (silicate and oxygen are two
most common elements in the
Earth’s crust)
 nonsilicate
 Minerals that DO NOT contain a
combination of the elements silicon
and oxygen
 6 classes of nonsilicate minerals
 Native elements
 Carbonates
 Halides
 Oxides
 Sulfates
 Sulfides
 Physical
properties and
characteristics
 This includes:
 color, streak, luster, crystal
shape & hardness
 Color
 Easy to observe
 Least effective way to identify
mineral
 Different minerals have same
color, some vary in color.
 Color depends on other substances
that became part of a mineral when
it formed.
 Streak
 The color of a mineral in its
powder form
 Sometimes the color you see and
the color of its streak are
different
 For example – pyrite looks golden
but it leaves a greenish-black
streak
 Luster
 The way a mineral reflects light
 Can be described as: dull, shiny,
greasy, pearly, metallic or glassy
 Metallic Luster = shiny
 submetallic or nonmetallic luster =
dull
 Cleavage
 The tendency of some minerals
to break along smooth, flat
surfaces
 Example: mica and halite
 Fracture
 The tendency of some minerals to
break unevenly along curved or
irregular surfaces
 Hardness
 The resistance of a mineral to being
scratched
 Scientist use the “Mohs Hardness Scale”
of 1 (softest) through 10 (hardest)
which says - a mineral of a given
hardness will scratch any mineral that
is softer than it is