Vocabulary
A mineral's ability to split easily along flat surfaces
What is cleavage?
Made from natural processes not people
What is naturally occuring?
Easily observed physical property that often provides little information
What is color?
True or False. Magnetism is a special property that minerals can have.
What is true?
Flat sides of crystals
What are faces?
The way a mineral looks when it breaks apart in an irregular way
What is fracture?
What is a solid?
Gained by rubbing mineral over unglazed, porcelain tile
What is streak?
Is Talc the hardest or softest mineral?
What is the softest mineral?
Forms from the remains of plants millions of years ago in the crust; an example of an organic material not inorganic
What is coal?
A scale ranking ten minerals from softest to hardest
What is Moh's hardness scale?
From materials that were not once a living thing
What is inorganic?
How light is reflected
What is luster?
Made from a living thing
What is organic?
About how many minerals have geologists identified?
What is 3800 minerals?
A naturally occurring, inorganic solid that has a crystal structure and a definite chemical composition
What is a mineral?
What is a crystalline structure?
Mass in a given space
What is denisty?
Materials that were not once made from a living thing
What is inorganic?
What is the formula for density?
What is density equals mass divided by volume?
A solid in which atoms are arranged in a pattern that repeats again and again
What is a crystal?
Always contains certain elements in definite proportions
What is definite chemical composition?
Structures classified into six systems
What are crystal systems?
True or false. Almost all minerals are compounds.
What is true?
Name two terms to describe a mineral's luster.
What are waxy, metallic, silky, dull, earthy, glassy?