Practical 1

Atoms, Elements and Minerals

 1.1 Minerals
According to our earlier definition, three conditions must be
satisfied for a substance to be a mineral:
 It must be a crystalline solid.
 It must occur naturally.
 It must have a specific composition.
Galena=方铅矿
Jasper=碧玉
Marcasite=白铁矿
Gpysum=石膏
Dolomite=白云石
Calcite=方解石
Halite=石盐
Oolite=鲕粒石
Sphalerite=闪锌矿
Opalite=蛋白石
Concretion=结石
Cone-in-cone=叠锥
Agate=玛瑙
Amber=琥珀
Identification of minerals
• Chemical analysis can help, but it’s costly and difficult;
• Physical properties are more generally used;
• Physical properties can reflect chemical composition,
bonding and crystalline structure.

Physical properties
of mineral
Five Important Minerals
• Although there are several thousand identifiable minerals
on Earth;
• Only a few hundred are classified as rock-forming minerals;

• The figure below 片麻岩

shows the most
common
important and 花岗岩

rock-forming
minerals.
Plagioclase
Orthoclase
Quartz
Muscovite
Biotite Five common minerals
Quartz
• May be the only familiar name among the most common
minerals;
• Like people, however, each mineral has its own character
or physical properties;
• As you become more familiar with them, they will became
more than just strange names.

Single quartz and Quartz cluster

Feldspar
• As shown in the figure, minerals with similar crystal
structures and compositions are grouped under a
common name.
• The most abundant group of minerals in the crust is
the feldspar group, because aluminum has substituted
for some of the silicon in the linked tetrahedrons.

The overview of feldspar

 Feldspar
Elements in feldspar
In addition to silicon, aluminum and oxygen, feldspars contain
sodium, calcium or potassium.
Classification
Potassium feldspar
• Those that contain potassium;
• Two potassium feldspars that
have subtle crystallographic
differences are microcline and
orthoclase
Plagioclase feldspar
• Sodium or calcium (or both)
are incorporated into the
feldspar crystal structure A detailed classification of feldspar
 Mica group
Characterized by minerals with a sheet silicate structure.
Two most common micas:

Biotite Muscovite
• Dark-colored; • Transparent or white;
• Iron/magnesium-bearing mica. • Lacks iron and magnesium.

Biotite image Muscovite image

Pyroxene group:
Single chain silicate.
Augite
Amphibole group:
Double chain silicate.
Hornblende

The structure and typical mineral of

amphibole group
The structure and typical
mineral of pyroxene group
 1.2 Physical Properties of Minerals

Best approach to understand physical properties of mineral:

• Obtain a sample of each of the most common rock-forming
minerals;
• Determine its physical
properties;
• Match the properties with the
appropriate mineral.

Physical properties of mineral

Color
• The most noticeable and useful property;
• Muscovite mica is white or colorless;
• Most of the ferro-magnesian minerals (iron/magnesium-
bearing), such as augite, hornblende, olivine, and biotite,
are either green or black;

Do you remember the

name of these minerals?
 Color
• Unfortunately, color is also the most ambiguous of
physical properties;
• Color is extremely variable in quartz and many other
minerals because even minute chemical impurities can
strongly influence it.

Why color may be a poor way of identifying

minerals. These are all corundum gems including Different colors of quartz
ruby and sapphire.
Streak
• A pulverized mineral gives a color, called a streak, that
usually is more reliable;
• Scraping the edge of a mineral sample across an unglazed
porcelain plate, leaves a streak that may be diagnostic of
the mineral;
• Hematite always leaves a reddish brown streak, though the
sample may be brown or red or silver.

Procedure of streak Red streak of silver hematite

Luster
The quality and intensity of light that is reflected from the
surface of a mineral is termed luster;
Types of luster: Metallic or Nonmetallic
 Metallic luster
This luster gives a substance the appearance of being
made of metal.
• May be very shiny, like a chrome car part.

Metallic luster of galena, pyrite and graphite

 Nonmetallic luster
• More common than metallic luster.
• The most important type is glassy luster, which gives a
substance a glazed appearance, like glass or porcelain.
• Most silicate minerals have this characteristic, such as
olivine, feldspars, dolomite, quartz etc.

Glassy luster of Olivine, Potassium feldspar and Dolomite

 Nonmetallic luster
• The other type is earthy luster:
• This resembles the surface of unglazed pottery and is
characteristic of the various clay minerals.

• Some uncommon lusters include resinous luster, silky luster

and pearly luster.

Earthy luster of Kaolinite, Bauxite and Gypsum

Hardness

• The property of hardness can be tested fairly

reliably.

• The harder mineral can make a groove or scratch

on a smooth, fresh surface of the softer mineral.

• For example, quartz can always scratch calcite or

feldspar.
Hardness
• Substances can be compared to Mohs' s hardness scale,
on which ten minerals are designated as standards of
hardness.
• Talc, the softest mineral, is designated as 1 .
• Diamond, the hardest natural substance on earth, is 10 on
the scale.

Mohs' s hardness scale

Cleavage
• Definition: Is the ability of a mineral to break, when
struck, along preferred directions.
• A mineral tends to break along certain planes because
the bonding between atoms is weaker there.

Mica pulled apart along Relationship of mica to cleavage.

cleavage planes.
Types of cleavage
Single direction: Mica.
The bonding between adjacent sheets is weak, and that’s
also why it is easy to pull the mineral apart parallel to the
plane of the sheets.

Cleavage of mica One direction of cleavage

Two directions: Feldspars
The two directions are at
angles of about 90 °to each
other, and both directions are
of very good quality.

Feldspar cleavage.
As seen in microscope

(B) Two directions of

cleavage that
intersect at
90°angles
 Three directions: Calcite
Being of three cleavage directions, each excellent;
But the angles are clearly not right angles;
Known as rhombohedral (菱形的) cleavage.

Three directions of cleavage that don’t

intersect at 90°angles. Calcite is an example.

Cleavage fragments of calcite

Fracture
• Fracture is the way a substance breaks where not
controlled by cleavage;
• Minerals that have no cleavage commonly have an
irregular fracture.
Conchoidal fracture
Minerals break along curved fracture surfaces.
• Like the inside of a clam or conch shell.
• Commonly observed in quartz and garnet.

Conchoidal fracture in glass

Specific Gravity
• Ratio of a mass of a substance to the mass of an equal
volume of water;
• Common silicate weigh about two and a half times as
much as equal volumes of water.

Specific gravity = Weight in air/(Weight in air – Weight in water)

Specific gravity of common minerals

 Summary
 Mineral are usually identified by their physical
properties.
 (1) Color

 (2) Streak

 (3) Luster

 (4) Hardness

 (5) Cleavage

 (6) Fracture
Physical properties of mineral
 (7) Specific gravity

*** Cleavage is the most useful physical property for identification.