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 (Be3Al2Si6A18)

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.