Mineral Hand Samples
This common mineral displays conchoidal fracture.
What is Quartz
This mineral appears black and white striped under cross-polarized light.
What is plagioclase feldspar.
This is the relative grain size of plutonic rocks.
What is coarse?
This category of sedimentary rock is made by the transportation and deposition of fragments of rocks and minerals.
What is clastic.
This type of metamorphism involves only changes in temperature.
What is contact metamorphism.
This principle details the order in which minerals crystallize from a magma
What is Bowen's Reaction Series
When light travels from air into another substance this phenomenon occurs.
What is refraction.
This type of fine-grained rock is the most abundant igneous rock at Earth's surface.
What is basalt.
This category of sedimentary rock reflects the involvement of once living organisms in its formation.
What is biogenic.
This type of chemical reaction produces water during metamorphism.
What is a dehydration reaction.
The formula of this mineral is (Mg, Fe)2SiO4.
What is olivine
This mineral property reflects the difference in refractive index between the fast ray and the slow ray traveling through the mineral.
What is birefringence.
The presence of this substance lowers the melting temperature of rocks.
What is water.
This sedimentary rock type consists of mostly feldspar, with subsidiary amounts of quartz and rock fragments but most significantly contains less that 15% mud.
What is an arenite (or arkose).
This is the name of the line that separates metamorphic zones on a geologic map.
What is an isograd.
Double chains of linked silica tetrahedra constitute this group of minerals.
What are amphiboles.
The interference colors of this common mineral are so high order that the mineral appears almost white in cross-polarized light.
What is calcite.
What is granite.
This type of sedimentary formation is an indicator of the amount of oxygen in the early atmosphere.
What is a banded iron formation.
The presence of blue amphiboles in a schist indicates this P-T condition of metamorphism.
What is very high pressure and moderate temperature.
These minerals are alumino-silicate polymorphs useful for determining pressure and temperature of rock formation.
What are sillimanite, kyanite, and andalusite.
This is the name of the black "arms" that sweep across the microscope stage when looking at an interference figure.
What is an isogyre.
This is the name of the point on a temperature-composition binary phase diagram at which there are zero degrees of freedom and cooling stops until one phase is finished crystallizing.
What is the eutectic.
The sedimentary mineral glauconite forms in place and when present in a sedimentary rock indicates this type of depositional environment.
What is marine.
These two minerals form from the reaction of muscovite plus quartz at high metamorphic grades.
What are potassium feldspar and sillimanite.