Mineral Basics
The study of minerals
What is minerology?
Turquoise and chalcedony have this type of luster
What is waxy?
Minerals that have this are the only ones that dissolve in water
What is taste?
Bending of light
What is refraction?
Solid, organic materials
What are rocks?
Mass per unit of volume of a substance
What is density?
The ability of a mineral to glow and change color under ultraviolet life
What is fluorescence?
Ability to continue to glow after an ultraviolet light is taken away
What is phosphorescence?
Tthe two most common minerals in the earth’s crust
What are feldspar and quartz?
Three characteristics of metallic minerals.
What are contains metals, reflect a lot of light, has a shiny appearance
Mass per unit of volume of a substance
What is density?
Tendency to break along irregular lines
What is fracture?
The seven physical properties of minerals
What are color, luster, hardness, streak, cleavage, fracture, and density?
Oxygen and one or two metals
What are oxides?
The five categories of nonmetallic minerals
What are glassy, waxy, earthy, dull, and resinous?
The two most common radioactive minerals
What are Uranium and Radium?
Two forms of energy emitted from radioactive minerals
What are alpha particles beta particles, gamma rays, and X-rays
The four basic characteristics all minerals share
What are natural, inorganic, crystalline, a definite chemical composition?
These determine a mineral’s hardness
What are strength of bonds between atoms and internal arrangement of atoms
Occurs when an atom’s nucleus decays and emits energy
What is radiation (radioactivity)?
Strongly magnetic mineral used in compasses?
What is lodestone?