Properties of Minerals
There are 5 properties of minerals:
1) They are naturally occurring. 2) They are solid. 3) They have a crystal structure 4) They have a definite chemical composition. 5) They must be able to form by ______?
What is ”inorganic processes”?
One of the most useful clues to use when identifying elements is the mineral’s ___________, which you determine through a scratch test.
What is “hardness”?
Name 5 ways minerals can be identified
What is the mineral’s color, streak color, luster, hardness, density, crystal structure, how it breaks and/or other special properties? (Any 5 of these answers are good)
Vocabulary word- a rounded, hollow rock that is often lined with mineral crystals, which geologists believe are formed when dissolved minerals seep into a crack or hollow of a rock where crystallization then occurs
What is a geode?
Name 3 adjectives to describe the luster of a mineral
What is earthy, pearly, metallic, nonmetallic, waxy, greasy, silky, shiny, glassy? (Possible answers)
Quartz always has one atom of silicon for every two atoms of oxygen. This is an example of a mineral having a _______.
What is a “definite chemical composition”?
Vocabulary word: The scale used to rank the hardness of minerals by comparing them to other minerals on the scale after performing a scratch test
What is Moh’s hardness scale?
The two properties determined by how a mineral breaks
What are cleavage and fracture?
1) From the cooling of magma or lava (inorganic processes), 2) from solutions (inorganic process), or 3) from organic processes
How are minerals formed?
It is more helpful when I’d entitling minerals to observe the color of the mineral or the color of it’s streak
What is “the color of it’s streak”?
Vocabulary word: The solid that is formed when particles of a mineral line up in a pattern that repeats over and over again; it has flat sides that meet up at sharp edges and corners
What is a crystal?
Vocabulary word: The color of a mineral’s powder
What is streak?
Vocabulary word: The term naming a mineral that splits easily along flat surfaces (example: Mica)
What is cleavage?
Minerals that form from the cooling of magma inside the earth, cool slowly, so their crystals’ sizes are ______.
What is large?
Number 10 on Mohs Hardness Scale because it is the hardest mineral
What is a diamond?
Vocabulary word: comes from materials that were not a part of living things
What is inorganic?
Vocabulary word: The term used to describe how light is reflected from a mineral’s surface
What is luster?
An example of special physical property that can identify a mineral
What is
-bends light to produce double images (like Calcite), conducts energy, glows when placed under ultraviolet light, or is magnetic (possible answers)
Minerals that form when lava hardens on the surface, Cool quickly, so _______ -sized crystals form.
What is small?
Number 1 on Mohs Hardness Scale because it is the softest mineral
What is talc?
Almost all minerals are ________, which is what you get when two or more elements are combined so that the elements no longer have distinct properties.
What is “compounds”?
Vocabulary word: The mass of a given space; mass per unit volume; This characteristic of a mineral always stays the same no matter how small or large the mineral sample is.
What is density?
Vocabulary word: The term used to describe how a mineral looks when it breaks apart in an irregular way
What is fracture?
Vocabulary word: A mixture in which one substance is dissolved in another; this can happen by evaporation or from hot water
What is a solution?