MINERALS The building blocks of rocks.. Did any of you use minerals - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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.