Intro to Minerals
Define minerals
Define metals
What are gold, silver, copper, iron, aluminum, and platinum are some of the most important minerals extracted from the earth using metallurgy; most common is hematite?
What are rocks that form when magma solidifies?
Define sedimentary rocks
What are sediments put under great pressure, heat, and chemical action that fuse together to create sedimentary rocks; 5% of the crust, covers 3/4 of earth?
Define metamorphic rocks
What are rocks that change/morph into "new rocks" from pre-existing igneous or sedimentary rocks?
Define native elements
What are smallest group of substances that exist naturally in the earth's crust as single, uncombined elements (but they can form compounds)?
3 Steps to metallurgy
What are 1. extraction 2. refining 3. shaping?
Two types of igneous rocks
What are intrusive and extrusive rocks?
Characteristics of sedimentary rocks
What are concretions (hard round structures when minerals settle out of water and crystallize around grain of sand), stratified rocks (layered - law of superposition!)?
2 kinds of metamorphic rocks
What are regional metamorphism - combo of heat/pressure caused by stress/movements of crust; and contact metamorphism - rocks are "baked" by contact with hot magma; the longer the rocks are baked the more change results?
Define halides
What are compounds made with fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine?
Identify the most abundant metal in the earth's crust
What is aluminum?
Define coarse-grained igneous rocks
What are rocks that are determined by how quickly the magma cools (slow=larger crystals=more coarse); examples are granite (crust) and Gabbro (oceanic crust)?
2 kinds of sedimentary rock buildup
What are mechanical sediments - "glued" together by pressure/chemical action (clastic sed. rock; shale/sandstone) and chemical sediments - minerals from rocks seep into water may dissolve and settle out of solution; limestone, evaporites like Salt Lake in Utah)?
2 classifications of metamorphic rocks
What are foliated - (slate), leaves of book; non-foliated - (marble), cannot be split into layers?
Identify the structures of minerals
What are geometric structures composed of atoms or molecules in an orderly arrangement, with faces that are flat surfaces and well-define edges?
Identify the hardest precious stone and what is its Mohs hardness scale
What is diamond, 10?
Define fine-grained igneous rocks
What are rocks formed when magma cools more quickly, extrusive, and formed during volcanic eruptions; example is basalt?
Define fossil fuels and given an example
What are useful substances considered an organic sedimentary rock; coal?
Characteristics of metamorphic rocks
What are evidence of pressures (stratum layers), denser, pebble in conglomerate rock, larger crystals after metamorphism, minerals not found normally in sedimentary/igneous rocks are found in metamorphic rocks?
Identify some tests you could use to identify a mineral
What are streak tests, surface color, luster, hardness (Mohs scale), shape, cleavage?
Describe difference between simulant vs. synthetic gemstones
What are simulant - imitation stones, look like a natural gemstone but have different chemical and physical properties; synthetic - identical to their counterparts in appearance and chemical content
Define smooth-textured igneous rocks
What are rocks formed when magma cools very rapidly, no crystals form, and rock is amorphous, smooth, glass-like texture; examples are obsidian, porous rocks like pumice or scoria?
Describe types of mining methods
What are coal mining (dangerous!), surface mining (coal veins in earth's surface stripped away by overburdens (filled in later); underground mining (longwall mining - rotating drum; continuous mining - steel drum with teeth; retreat mining - coal rooms, move backwards to avoid cave ins)?
Meaning of metamorphism
What is "to transform"?