Rock Solid ID
Test that involves rubbing a mineral on a porcelain plate to observe its powdered color.
What is the streak test?
What is five?
(Solid, inorganic, formed by natural processes, element or compound with unique chemical composition, atoms arranged in repeating pattern)
The physical state in which a mineral needs to be.
What is a solid?
Most minerals are formed by this number of elements.
What is eight?
The leftover impurities once ore is removed.
The property that describes how a mineral reflects light
What is luster?
A solid in which atoms are arranged in repeating patterns.
What is a crystal?
The two types of mining are surface mining and this.
What is sub-surface mining?
Stones that are highly prized minerals because they are beautiful and rare.
What are gems?
A rock is only considered an ore if mining it results in this — money left over after costs are paid.
The measure of how easily a mineral can be scratched.
What is hardness?
When minerals are dissolved in liquid, crystals may form from precipitation or this process.
What is evaporation?
Biotite Mica breaks along smooth, flat surfaces that displays this type of breakage.
What is cleavage?
One of the requirements for being a mineral that means something isn't alive, never was alive and not made by life processes.
What is inorganic?
A location that has a high abundance of a mineral of interest.
What is a reserve?
The property displayed when a mineral breaks with rough or jagged edges.
What is fracture?
The two most abundant elements in Earth's crust are oxygen and this mineral.
What is silicon?
This shape of 10% of asbestos makes them more harmful to our lungs.
What is thin, straight?
This mineral has threadlike, flexible fibers and is a good insulator.
What is asbestos?
The industrial process that removes impurities from ore.
What is refining?
The scale used to measure a minerals hardness.
What is the Moh's Scale of Hardness
Salt displays this crystal system form.
What is cubic?
(Other forms include tetragonal, hexagonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic and triclinic)
The value of a mineral depends on both its supply and this — the desire to buy or use it.
What is demand?
The softest mineral.
What is Talc?
The name for the process when sulfide minerals are exposed to water and air and a chemical reaction occurs that produces rust and sulfuric acid, resulting in water that is acidic and metal-rich.