Properties
This is the most obvious property, but often not very useful to identify minerals since many can be the same.
What is color?
The Scratch test is used to find out this property of rocks and minerals.
What is hardness?
This type of rock forms from substances like sand, mud, clay, and shells.
What is sedimentary rock?
This sedimentary rock forms from mud or clay and may contain fossils.
What is shale?
This bright yellow mineral has an odor that some describe as "rotten eggs" or "fireworks."
What is sulfur?
This is the color left behind when rock is scratched on a hard surface, like a piece of tile.
What is streak?
This scientist devised the scale used to compare the hardness of minerals.
Who is Frederick Mohs?
This type of rock forms from lava or magma that cools and hardens.
What is igneous?
This rock is made up of mica, feldspar, and quartz.
What is granite?
This flat mineral breaks apart in very thin sheets. It was sometimes used in place of glass in windows. It can be black or clear.
What is mica?
This word is used to tell that a rock or mineral breaks in an uneven, random way.
What is fracture?
Name the softest AND hardest minerals on the hardness scale.
-talc is the softest
-diamond is the hardest
This word means "changed."
What is metamorphic?
This igneous rock looks like black glass. It is very sharp and was once used to make spears, arrowheads and knives.
What is obsidian?
This mineral is sometimes mistaken for another valuable mineral, but it has a greenish black streak and is much harder than the other mineral.
What is iron pyrite (fool's gold)?
This word describes how a rock or mineral breaks in predictable ways with flat surfaces.
What is cleavage?
This is the correct order of steps in the Scratch test:
What is
1) Rub rock then scratch with fingernail
2) Scratch rock with a penny
3) Rub rock with steel nail
4) See if rock scratches glass
This process continually changes rock from one type to another.
What is the rock cycle?
This metamorphic rock is very flat and hard. It is often used as a chalkboard, or flooring, or as a roofing material.
What is slate?
This mineral is very common. It comes in many different colors. It can be clear, translucent, or not clear at all. It has a easily recognizable crystal shape. Common varieties are "rose" and "smokey."
What is quartz?
Also know as Specific Gravity (SG), this property tells how "tightly packed" atoms are arranged in a rock or mineral.
What is density?
What is...
(granite, quartz, feldspar, maybe sandstone)
Name the two types of igneous rock and tell where they form.
What is intrusive (forms underground) and
extrusive (forms from lava above ground).
This sedimentary rock forms from crushed shells and the skeletal remains of sea organisms like coral.
What is limestone?
This mineral has a silvery metallic luster. It is very dense and feels heavy for its size.
What is galena?