![]() ![]() Some minerals are colored because they contain chemical impurities.If a mineral is magnetic, do you know for certain what mineral it is?.Why do some minerals cleave along certain planes?.Mineral B is twice as dense as Mineral A. Why is streak more reliable than color when identifying a mineral?.Which mineral would you use next to test the mineral’s hardness - fluorite or feldspar? Explain your reasoning. Apatite scratches the surface of an unknown mineral.What causes a mineral to have the properties that it has?.Which properties of a mineral describe the way it breaks apart?.Some minerals have special properties that can be used to help identify them.Cleavage or the characteristic way a mineral breaks depends on the crystal structure of the mineral.Mohs Hardness Scale is used to compare the hardness of minerals.Color and luster describe the mineral’s outer appearance.Minerals have distinctive properties that can be used to help identify them.Mineral gives off radiation that can be measured with Geiger counterīubbles form when mineral is exposed to a weak acidĪ simple lesson on how to identify minerals is seen in this video. Can you name a unique property that would allow you to instantly identify a mineral that’s been described quite a bit in this chapter? (Hint: It is most likely found on your dinner table.) Some minerals have unusual properties that can be used for identification. Some minerals have other unique properties, some of which are listed in Table below. Halite breaks between layers of sodium and chlorine to form cubes with smooth surfaces ( Figure below).Ĭhrysotile has splintery fracture. For that reason, minerals break apart in characteristic ways.Ĭleavage is the tendency of a mineral to break along certain planes to make smooth surfaces. Since some bonds are weaker than other bonds, each type of mineral is likely to break where the bonds between the atoms are weaker. Cleavage and Fractureīreaking a mineral breaks its chemical bonds. Note that no other mineral can scratch diamond. You know then that the mineral’s hardness is between 5 and 6. You find that it can scratch fluorite or even apatite, but feldspar scratches it. With a Mohs scale, anyone can test an unknown mineral for its hardness. Mohs Hardness Scale: 1 (softest) to 10 (hardest). Mohs Hardness Scale, shown in Table below, is a reference for mineral hardness. Hardness is a measure of whether a mineral will scratch or be scratched. (b) Sulfur reflects less light than quartz, so it has a resinous luster. (b) Quartz is not sparkly and has a vitreous, or glassy, luster. What is the mineral’s color? What is its shape? Are the individual crystals shiny or dull? Are there lines (striations) running across the minerals? In this lesson, the properties used to identify minerals are described in more detail. While a mineralogist might use a high-powered microscope to identify some minerals, most are recognizable using physical properties.Ĭheck out the mineral in Figure below. One of the things mineralogists must do is identify and categorize minerals. Mineralogists are scientists who study minerals. Color is readily observable and certainly obvious, but it is usually less reliable than other physical properties. Some characteristics, such as a mineral’s hardness, are more useful for mineral identification. The physical properties of minerals are related to their chemical composition and bonding. Minerals can be identified by their physical characteristics. Identify additional properties that can be used to identify some minerals. ![]()
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