ASSIGNMENT #2

1. What are Minerals?

A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline
form and not produced by life processes. A mineral has one specific
chemical composition, whereas a rock can be an aggregate of
different minerals or mineraloids.

2. Briefly discuss the following physical properties of minerals

a. Color
The most obvious property of a mineral, its color, is unfortunately also
the least diagnostic. In the same way that a headache is a symptom for a
whole host of problems from the flu to a head injury, many minerals
share the same color. For example, several minerals are green in color –
olivine, epidote, and actinolite, just to name a few. On the other
extreme, one mineral can take on several different colors if there are
impurities in the chemical composition, such as quartz, which can be
clear, smoky, pink, purple, or yellow.

b. Crystal Foam
The external shape of a mineral crystal (or its crystal form) is determined
largely by its internal atomic structure, which means that
this property can be highly diagnostic. Specifically, the form of a crystal is
defined by the angular relationships between crystal faces (recall
Steno's Law of Interfacial Angles as discussed in our Minerals I module).
Some minerals, like halite (NaCl, or salt) and pyrite (FeS) have a cubic
form (see Figure 3, left); others like tourmaline (see Figure 3, middle) are
 prismatic. Some minerals, like azurite and malachite, which are both
copper ores, don't form regular crystals, and are amorphous (Figure 3).
Unfortunately, we don't always get to see the crystal form. We see
perfect crystals only when they have had a chance to grow into a cavity,
such as in a geode. When crystals grow in the context of cooling magma,
however, they are competing for space with all of the other crystals that
are trying to grow and they tend to fill in whatever space they can. The
shape of the crystal can vary quite a bit depending on the amount of
space available, but the angle between the crystal faces will always be
the same.

c. Hardness
The hardness of a mineral can be tested in several ways. Most
commonly, minerals are compared to an object of known hardness using
a scratch test – if a nail, for example, can scratch a crystal, than the nail is
harder than that mineral. In the early 1800s, Friedrich Mohs, an Austrian
mineralogist, developed a relative hardness scale based on the scratch
test. He assigned integer numbers to each mineral, where 1 is the softest
and 10 is the hardest. This scale is shown in Figure 4.
d. Luster
The luster of a mineral is the way that it reflects light. This may seem like
a difficult distinction to make, but picture the difference between the
way light reflects off a glass window and the way it reflects off of a shiny
chrome car bumper. A mineral that reflects light the way glass does has a
vitreous (or glassy) luster; a mineral that reflects light like chrome has a
metallic luster. There are a variety of additional possibilities for luster,
including pearly, waxy, and resinous (see pictures in Figure 5). Minerals
that are as brilliantly reflective as diamond have an adamantine luster.
With a little practice, luster is as easily recognized as color and can be
 quite distinctive, particularly for minerals that occur in multiple colors
like quartz. Here are luster examples.

e. Specific Gravity or Density

The density of minerals varies widely from about 1.01 g/cm 3 to about
17.5 g/cm3. The density of water is 1 g/cm 3, pure iron has a density of
7.6 g/cm3, pure gold, 17.65 g/cm3. Minerals, therefore, occupy the range
of densities between water and pure gold. Measuring the density of a
specific mineral requires time-consuming techniques, and most
geologists have developed a more intuitive sense for what is "normal"
density, what is unusually heavy for its size, and what is unusually light.
By "hefting" a rock, experienced geologists can usually guess if the rock
is made up of minerals that contain iron or lead, for example, because it
feels heavier than an average rock of the same size (see
our Density module for more information).
f. Cleavage
Most minerals contain inherent weaknesses within their atomic
structures, a plane along which the bond strength is lower than the
surrounding bonds. When hit with a hammer or otherwise broken, a
mineral will tend to break along that plane of pre-existing weakness. This
type of breakage is called cleavage, and the quality of the cleavage varies
with the strength of the bonds. Biotite, for example, has layers of
extremely weak hydrogen bonds that break very easily, thus biotite
breaks along flat planes and is considered to have perfect cleavage (see
 Figure 6). Other minerals cleave along planar surfacesof varying
roughness – these are considered to have good to poor cleavage.

g. Fracture
Some minerals don't have any planes of weakness in their atomic
structure. These minerals don't have any cleavage, and instead they
fracture. Quartz fractures in a distinctive fashion, called conchoidal,
which produces a concave surface with a series of arcuate ribs similar to
the way that glass fractures (see Figure 6). For quartz, in fact, this lack of
cleavage is a distinguishing property.
h. Streak
The streak of a mineral is the color of the powder left on a streak plate
(piece of unglazed porcelain) when the mineral is scraped across it. The
streak plate has a hardness of glass, so minerals with a Mohs Hardness
>7 will scratch the streak plate and won't powder the mineral.

Where do you observe streak?

A mineral’s streak is determined by rubbing it on a streak plate, which is a piece of
unglazed porcelain. The streak plate is essentially a type of glass, so it isn't used
on minerals with hardness greater than 7.
How useful is streak in identifying minerals?
Streak can be useful for identifying metallic and earthy minerals. Nonmetallic

minerals usually give a white streak because they are very light-colored. Other
minerals may have very distinctive streaks. Hematite, for example, always gives a
reddish-brown streak no matter what type of luster it displays.

3. Supply the meaning and description of the classification of minerals.

a. Silicate materials – are rock-forming minerals with
predominantly silicate anions. They are the largest and most important
class of rock-forming minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of
the Earth's crust.
Silicate minerals are the most common of Earth's minerals and include
quartz, feldspar, mica, amphibole, pyroxene, and olivine. Silica
tetrahedra, made up of silicon and oxygen, form chains, sheets, and
frameworks, and bond with other cations to form silicate minerals.
b. Oxides - The oxide mineral class includes those minerals in which
the oxide anion (O2−) is bonded to one or more metal ions.
The hydroxidebearing minerals are typically included in the oxide class.
The minerals with complex anion groups such as
the silicates, sulfates, carbonates and phosphates are classed separately.

c. Sulfides
is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a
compound containing one or more S2− ions. It contributes no color to
sulfide salts. As it is classified as a strong base, even dilute solutions of
salts such as sodium sulfide (Na2S) are corrosive and can attack the skin.
Sulfide is the simplest sulfur anion.
Significant examples include: argentite (silver sulfide), cinnabar
(mercury), galena (lead sulfide), molybdenite (molybdenum sulfide),
pentlandite (nickel sulfide), realgar (arsenic sulfide), and stibnite
(antimony), sphalerite (zinc sulfide), and pyrite (iron disulfide), and
chalcopyrite (iron-copper sulfide).

d. Sulfates
2−
- is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula SO 4. . Sulfate is
the spelling recommended by IUPAC, but sulphate is used in British
English. Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely
used in industry.
Many of the sulfate minerals are salts of more than one metal, such as
polyhalite, which is a combination of potassium, calcium, and
magnesium sulfates. Sulfate minerals common in evaporite deposits
include anhydrite, gypsum, thenardite (Na2SO4), epsomite (MgSO.

e. Native Elements
- Native element minerals are those elements that occur in nature in
uncombined form with a distinct mineral structure. The elemental
class includes metals and intermetallic elements, naturally occurring
alloys, semi-metals and non-metals.
The following elements occur as native element minerals or alloys:
- Aluminium.
- Antimony.
- Arsenic.
- Bismuth.
- Carbon.
- Cadmium.
- Chromium.
- Copper.

f. Halides
A halide ion is a halogen atom bearing a negative charge. The halide
anionsare fluoride (F−), chloride (Cl−), bromide (Br−), iodide (I−) and
astatide (At−). Such ions are present in all ionic halide salts. Halide
minerals contain halides.
The halide mineral class include those minerals with a
dominant halide anion (F−, Cl−, Br− and I−). Complex halide minerals may
also have polyatomic anions in addition to or that include halides.[1]

g. Carbonates
- a carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the
presence of thecarbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula of
CO 2− 3. . The name may also mean an ester of carbonic acid, an
organic compound containing the carbonate group C(=O)(O–)2.
- For example calcium carbonate CaCO3, calcium-
magnesium carbonateCaMg(CO3)2 and iron carbonate FeCO3.
These carbonates form an important component of rocks like
limestone, dolomite and siderite. Carbonates of sodium and
potassium are used for their anti-microbial properties as a cleaning
agent and for preserving food.

h. Phospates
- Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element
phosphorus, found in many phosphateminerals. In mineralogy and
geology, phosphate refers to a rock or ore containing phosphate ions.
Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in
agriculture and industry.
- Phosphate minerals are those minerals that contain the tetrahedrally
coordinated phosphate (PO43−) anion along with the freely
substituting arsenate (AsO43−) and vanadate (VO43−). Chlorine (Cl−),
fluorine (F−), and hydroxide (OH−) anions that also fit into the crystal
structure.