October 20, 2018

Chapter 2: Atoms, Elements, and Minerals

Eng. Walaa Darwish

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MINERALS AND ROCKS

For geologists, the term mineral has a very specific

definition:

A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic, crystalline

solid that has a specific chemical composition.

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▪ Naturally occurring tells us that a mineral must form

through natural geologic processes.

Synthetic diamonds, while possessing all of the other

attributes of a mineral (inorganic, crystalline, specific
chemical composition) cannot be considered true
minerals because they are not formed naturally.

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▪ Inorganic means that minerals are not composed

of the complex hydrocarbon molecules that are the basis
of life-forms such as humans and plants.

▪ Minerals have a specific chemical composition that

can be described by a chemical formula. Chemical
formulas tell you which elements are in the mineral
and in what proportion.

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▪ All minerals have a crystalline structure where the

atoms that make up the mineral are arranged in an
orderly, repeating, three-dimensional pattern.

Now that we have considered the definition of a mineral,

it is important to consider the difference between
minerals and rocks.

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Rocks are defined as naturally formed aggregates of

minerals or mineral-like substances.

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The granite therefore, is a rock that is made up of the

minerals quartz, plagioclase feldspar, potassium
feldspar, and biotite.

A rock can be composed of a single mineral. For

example, limestone is composed of the mineral calcite.

The reason that limestone is a rock and not defined

simply as the mineral calcite is that the limestone is
made up of multiple crystals of calcite either grown in an
interlocking pattern or cemented together.

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Some rocks can be composed of non-mineral

substances. For example, coal is made of partially
decomposed organic matter. Obsidian is made of silica
glass, which is not crystalline and therefore not a
mineral.

It is very important to keep the distinction between

elements, minerals, and rocks clear when learning about
geology.

Rocks are composed of minerals, and minerals are

composed of atoms of elements bonded together in an
orderly crystalline structure.
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THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MINERALS

To identify an unknown mineral, you should first

determine its physical properties, then match the
properties with the appropriate mineral.

With a bit of experience, you may get to know the

diagnostic properties for each common mineral and no
longer need to refer to an identification table.

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1. Color
2. Streak
3. Luster
4. Hardness
5. External Crystal Form
6. Cleavage
7. Fracture
8. Specific Gravity
9. Special Properties
10. Chemical Tests
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1. Color

The first thing most people notice about a mineral is its

color. For some minerals, color is a useful property.

Because color is so obvious, beginning students tend to

rely too heavily on it as a key to mineral identification.

Unfortunately, color is also apt to be the most

ambiguous of physical properties.

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If you look at a number of quartz crystals, for instance,

you may find specimens that are white, pink, gray,
brown, yellow, or purple.

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Color is extremely variable in quartz and many other

minerals because even minute chemical impurities can
strongly influence it.

Obviously, it is poor procedure to attempt to identify

quartz strictly on the basis of color.

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Another way to consider how color is not always a good

diagnostic property is to consider the minerals quartz,
gypsum, calcite, and feldspar. All of these minerals can
have a white color.

How then can you tell them apart? You have to

determine other physical properties in addition to color.

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2. Streak

Streak is the color of the powder formed when a mineral is

crushed.
A mineral’s streak can be observed by scraping the edge of
the sample across an unglazed porcelain plate known as a
streak plate.

This streak color is often very different from the color of the
mineral and is usually more reliable than color as a
diagnostic property.

For instance, hematite always leaves a reddish brown streak

though the sample may be brown or red or silver in color
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Many metallic minerals leave a dark-colored streak

whereas most nonmetallic minerals leave a white or
pale- colored streak.

Many minerals, in particular many of the silicate

minerals, are harder than the streak plate and, thus, it
can be very difficult to obtain their streak.

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3. Luster

The quality and intensity of light that is reflected from

the surface of a mineral is termed luster . (A photograph
cannot always show this quality.)

The luster of a mineral is described by comparing it to

familiar substances.

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Luster is either metallic or nonmetallic. A metallic luster

gives a substance the appearance of being made of
metal.

Metallic luster may be very shiny, or less shiny, like the

surface of a broken piece of iron.

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Nonmetallic luster is more common. The most important

type is glassy luster , which gives a substance a glazed
appearance, like glass or porcelain.

Most silicate minerals have this characteristic. The

feldspars, quartz, and the micas all have a glassy luster.

Less common is an earthy luster . This resembles the

surface of unglazed pottery and is characteristic of the
various clay minerals.

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4. Hardness

For a true test of hardness, the harder mineral or

substance must be able to make a groove or scratch on
a smooth, fresh surface of the softer mineral.

For example, quartz can always scratch calcite or

feldspar and is thus said to be harder than both of these
minerals.

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Substances can be compared to Mohs’ hardness scale ,

in which ten minerals are designated as standards of
hardness.

The softest mineral, talc is designated as 1. Diamond,

the hardest natural substance on Earth, is 10 on the
scale. Mohs’ scale is a relative hardness scale.

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The absolute hardness is obtained using an instrument

that measures how much pressure is required to indent
a mineral.

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5. External Crystal Form

The crystal form of a mineral is a set of faces that have a

definite geometric relationship to one another

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Minerals displaying well-developed crystal faces have

played an important role in the development of
chemistry and physics.

Nicolas Steno, a Danish naturalist of the seventeenth

century, first noted that the angle between two adjacent
faces of quartz is always exactly the same, no matter
what part of the world the quartz sample comes from or
the color or size of the quartz.

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6. Cleavage

The internal order of a crystal may be expressed

externally by crystal faces, or it may be indicated by the
mineral’s tendency to split apart along certain preferred
directions.

Cleavage is the ability of a mineral to break, when struck

or split, along preferred planar directions.

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A mineral tends to break along certain planes because

the bonding between atoms is weaker there.

In quartz, the bonds are equally strong in all directions;

therefore, quartz has no cleavage.

The micas, however, which are sheet silicates, are easily

split apart into sheets

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Cleavage is one of the most useful diagnostic tools

because it is identical for a given mineral from one
sample to another.

Cleavage is especially useful for identifying minerals

when they occur as small grains in rocks.

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The wide variety of combinations of cleavage and quality

of cleavage also increases the diagnostic value of this
property.

Mica has a single direction of cleavage, and its quality is

perfect. Other minerals are characterized by one, two,
or more cleavage directions; the quality can range from
perfect to poor. (Poor cleavage is very hard for anyone
but a well-trained mineralogist to detect.)

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7. Fracture

Fracture is the way a substance breaks where not

controlled by cleavage. Minerals that have no cleavage
commonly have an irregular fracture.

Minerals that have cleavage can fracture along

directions other than that of the cleavage

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Some minerals break along curved fracture surfaces

known as conchoidal fractures.

This type of fracture is commonly observed in quartz and

garnet (but these minerals also show irregular
fractures).

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8. Specific Gravity

Density is commonly expressed as specific gravity , the

ratio of a mass of a substance to the mass of an equal
volume of water.

Liquid water has a specific gravity of 1. (Ice, being

lighter, has a specific gravity of about 0.9.) Most of the
common silicate minerals are about two and a half to
three times as dense as equal volumes of water.

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Quartz has a specific gravity of 2.65; the feldspars range

in specific gravity from 2.56 to 2.76.

Special scales are needed to determine specific gravity

precisely.

However, a person can easily distinguish by hand very

dense from the much less dense minerals.

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9. Special Properties

Some properties apply to only one mineral or to only a

few minerals. Smell is one. Some clay minerals have a
characteristic earthy smell when they are moistened.

A few minerals have a distinctive taste. If you lick halite,

it tastes salty because it is, of course, halite (more
commonly known as salt).

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The mineral magnetite (an iron oxide) owes its name to

its characteristic physical property of being attracted to a
magnet.

Quartz has the property of generating electricity when

squeezed in a certain crystallographic direction. This
property, called piezoelectricity, relates to its use in
quartz watches.

A mineral has numerous other properties, including its

melting point, electrical and heat conductivity, and so
on.
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10. Chemical Tests

One chemical reaction is routinely used for identifying

minerals.

The mineral calcite, as well as some other carbonate

minerals (those containing CO 3 in their formulas), reacts
with a weak acid to produce carbon dioxide gas.

In this test, a drop of dilute hydrochloric acid applied to the

sample of calcite bubbles vigorously, indicating that CO2
gas is being formed. Normally, this is the only chemical
test that geologists do during field research.
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Chemical analyses of minerals and rocks are done in

labs using a wide range of techniques.

A chemical analysis can accurately tell us the amount of

each element present in a mineral. However, chemical
analysis alone cannot be used to conclusively identify a
mineral. We also need to know about the mineral’s
crystalline structure.

Diamond and graphite have an identical composition but

very different crystalline structures.

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THE MANY CONDITIONS OF MINERAL FORMATION

Minerals form under an enormously wide variety of

conditions— most purely geological; others biological in
nature. Some form tens of kilometers beneath the
surface; others right at the surface and virtually out of
the atmosphere itself.

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The most common minerals are silicates. Silicate

minerals such as quartz and the feldspars crystallize
primarily from molten rock (magma). They are
precipitates— products of crystallizing liquid.

Some minerals precipitate due to evaporation (e.g.,

halite).

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Some minerals result from biological activity; for

example, calcite-rich limestone.

Some minerals crystallize directly from volcanic gases

around volcanic vents—a process termed sublimation.
Example include ordinary sulfur.

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