Earth's Materials Rocks and Minerals: 7 Grade Science
Earth's Materials Rocks and Minerals: 7 Grade Science
Earth's Materials Rocks and Minerals: 7 Grade Science
Properties of Minerals; Naturally occurring-not man made, not made of plants or animal Inorganic Solids Definite chemical composition
Formed by natural processes without any human input Inorganic is when something occurs by natural processes A crystalline solid means is has a definite chemical composition and definite shape Only a mineral can be a solid but not all solids are minerals
Crystalline means the pattern occurs over and over again and is repeating Crystals are solids with atoms that repeat in the same pattern Crystals are formed by two processes; Magma and solutions of salts
Magma is the hot melted rock-magma can cool inside Earths surface or when it reaches the outside of Earths surface When magma cools slow, the atoms have time to form a pattern and move close together The way the magma cools either slow or fast, determines the type of crystals that are present
Slow cooling magma-below Earths surface forms large easily visible crystals Fast cooling magma forms small crystals which are hard to visualize
Crystals from solutions When the water evaporates the ions that are left behind come together to form crystals
The most common rock forming minerals are silicates; they contain silicon and oxygen and usually another element Silicon and oxygen are the two most common elements in the earths crust
Properties are what allows you to tell one object from another Mineral appearance-the way the mineral looks. Dont depend on this to identify the mineral Color and appearance are helpful but not dependable tools to identify the mineral
Hardness-how easily a mineral can be scratched Softest is talc and the hardest is diamond Use the Mohs scale to determine the hardness of a mineral
Luster-the ability of the mineral to reflect light Metallic or nonmetallic Metallic is shiny and bright Non metallic is dull, pearly, silky and glassy
Streak-the powdered color of the mineral When rubbed across a piece of unglazed porcelain tile it is the color left behind Example gold and fools gold look alike but the streak patterns are different; gold is yellow and fools gold is black/greenish
The way a mineral breaks also tells about its identity Cleavage-the way the mineral breaks along smooth flat surfaces
Gems are rare beautiful flawless minerals that are sold for a high price
Olivine composes a large part of Earths upper mantle, it is present in moon rocks also. Garnet is found in a wide variety of rocks. The red color of almandine is caused by iron in its crystal structure Quarts makes up about 30% of the Earths continental crust
Olivine= MINERAL
Garnet= MINERAL Quartz= MINERAL
Periodot= GEM
Almandine =GEM Amethyst= GEM
Colorless varieties found in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Amethyst in Brazil, Uruguay, Madagascar, Montana, North Carolina, California, Maine Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Kashmir
Blue color of sapphire is caused by iron or titanium in corundum. Chromium in corundum produces the red color of ruby
BERYL= MINERAL
SPINEL= MINERAL
EMERALD =GEM
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ruby Myanmar (Burma) Spinel= GEM TANZANIT Tanzania E=GEM
TOPAZ= GEM
Siberia, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Texas, California, Maine, Virginia, South Carolina