Mineral Groups
Minerals that contain silicon and oxygen and is the most abundant mineral group.
What are silicates?
A naturally occurring, inorganic, crystalline solid with definite chemical and physical properties.
What is a mineral?
The color of the mineral when it is powdered, typically done by rubbing the sample over a ceramic plate.
What is streak?
A solid in which atoms are arranged in orderly, repeated patterns.
What is a crystal?
The three smaller subatomic particles at the center of an atom.
What are protons, neutrons, and electrons?
Mineral group that contains carbon and oxygen covalently bonded to each other to form carbonate ions.
What are carbonates?
A solid mixture of one or more minerals.
What is a rock?
The way the mineral reflects light off of its surface.
What is luster?
A substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical or physical means.
What is an element?
The process of forming a crystal.
What is crystallization?
Mineral group that contains a metal ion bonded to sulfur, but not any oxygen.
What is sulfides?
A mineral composed of just one element.
What is native elements?
A measure of the mineral's resistance to scratching.
What is hardness?
The smallest individual particle of an element.
What is an atom?
A chemical bond when electrons are transferred from metal atoms to nonmetal atoms.
What is ionic bond?
A mineral group containing the sulfate ion.
What are sulfates?
Scarce minerals that are highly valued.
What are gems or gemstones?
The tendency of a mineral to break along certain planes.
What is cleavage?
A substance made of two or more elements that have been chemically bonded together.
What is a compound?
A chemical bond that occurs when two nonmetal atoms share pairs of electrons.
What is covalent bond?
Minerals that contain a metal ion bonded to oxygen.
What are oxides?
A mineral in which a metal ion bonds to an element from Group 17 of the periodic table.
What is Halides?
A scale used to rate the mineral hardness on a scale of 1 to 10.
What is the Mohs scale?
The three groups in the Periodic Table of the Elements.
What are metals, metalloids, and nonmetals?
A chemical bond occurs when the outermost electrons of the atoms can be pictured as freely floating between the atoms of the metal.
What is metallic bonding?