EAPS 100: Planet Earth

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 Textbook Reading

Chapter 2: Minerals and Mineral Resources (p. 36-67)

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 Goals for this Module
You should be able to accomplish the following tasks…

• If presented with several common substances you should be able to determine

which is a mineral and which is not

• Explain how minerals are built from atoms and how this architecture manifests
itself in macroscopic mineral qualities

• Identify the most common class of minerals on planet Earth and understand its
relationship to the planet’s bulk composition

• Describe the processes that lead to mineral growth, change, and dissolution.

• Identify a few minerals that provide the resources that you use everyday

• Distinguish minerals from rocks and explain how the three major types of rock
form
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Rocks and Minerals

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Rocks, Landscapes, and the Earth

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Don’t take granite for granted!

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Mineral Constituents

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Mineral Constituents

Minerals are the basic building block of the solid

Earth. Rocks are aggregates of minerals and the
type, quantity, size, and shapes of different
minerals within rocks provide us with
information about how it formed.

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 Minerals

A mineral must be a natural, inorganic, solid, with

an ordered internal structure.

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Which is a Mineral?
Quartz sand from a beach

Sugar crystals

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Which is a Mineral?

A diamond mined from the Earth.

Cubic zirconia grown in a lab.

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Which is a Mineral?
This quartz crystal.

This large block of granite.

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Elements, Bonding, and Unit Cells

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 Atoms
All matter is composed of atoms.

They are the smallest particles that cannot be chemically split.

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Periodic Table

There are 118 known

elements. Each
element is defined

by its number of
protons.

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 Elements

Some elements form minerals in their pure form. 16

 Elements

Other minerals are composed of multiple elements

that are bonded together, like this quartz crystal,
which is composed of silicon and oxygen.
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 Chemical Bonding

• Ionic

Electrons are moved between atoms to make charged particles (ions)

• Metallic

Electrons are free to move between atoms

• Covalent

Electrons are shared between atoms

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Valence Electrons
Electrons move around atoms in
‘shells’

The outermost ‘shell’ contains

valence electrons

Atoms tend to gain, lose, or share

electrons until their outermost
‘shell’ contains eight electrons.

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Ionic Bonding

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Covalent Bonds

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Metallic Bonding

Copper Wire

Native Copper

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Bond Strength

Covalent > Ionic > Metallic

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 Putting the Mineral Together

Solids pack atoms in the

most efficient way
possible to maintain
charge balance.* *For a given set of physical conditions.
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 The Unit Cell
Cl -1

The unit cell is the smallest

repeatable unit within a
crystalline solid. The overall
structure of the macroscopic
mineral is built from repeating
units of this basic structure!
Na +1
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 Atomic Structure to Macroscopic Properties

Atomic arrangement leads to macroscopic features!

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 Atomic Structure to Macroscopic Properties

Planes with moderately strong ionic bonds.

Cl -1

Na +1
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Mineral Identification

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 What’s in a Name?
Can be anything that the discoverer wants as long as it
passes the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral
Name: Halite
Names from the International Mineralogical Society

Formula: NaCl The simplest way to express the elemental composition of

the mineral. In this case halite is composed of 1 sodium
ion for every chlorine ion. The unit cell of a mineral is a
multiple of the formula (Halite’s unit cell consists of four
Na and four Cl atoms).

Remember, minerals are a manifestation of

elemental composition!

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 How to Identify Minerals
• Color

• Streak

• Cleavage

• Magnetic Properties

• Density

• Luster
• Hardness

• Habit
• Etc.
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 Mineral Color
Color is typically the first thing that you notice when examining a
mineral.

While it is worthwhile noting the

color, it can be misleading.
Small impurities in the mineral’s
chemical composition can have
a big effect on color!
Purple: Fe
Quartz (SiO2) Black: Al
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 Streak

The streak is the color of the

powdered mineral. Typically
gained by rubbing a mineral
against a white ceramic plate

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 Cleavage

Cleavage is when the mineral

typically breaks along smooth
planes that reflect layers of
weak bonding

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 Magnetic Properties

Many minerals that contain iron

(Fe) are weakly to strongly
magnetic and can be identified
using a magnet.

Magnetite Fe3O4
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 Mineral Luster
Metallic luster from broken Galena (PbS)

Luster is a term for how light

reflects off of minerals. There
are many types: adamantine
(brilliant: think diamonds),
greasy, metallic, pearly, silky,
vitreous (glass-like), etc.

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Mineral Hardness

Mineral hardness is most easily

measured relative to another
material by scratching the two
together and seeing which
substance is scratched and
which does the scratching.

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Mineral Habit
Habit is the shape a mineral
would form if there were no
space restrictions when it
grew. Most museum
specimens reflect their
characteristic habits.
However, most of the time
minerals grow into irregular
shapes.

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Identification of Minerals

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Earth Chemistry

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Composition of Earth’s Crust

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Covalent Bonds

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Silica Tetrahedra

There is a 4- residual charge on the

silica tetrahedra, meaning that the
entire molecule (SiO4) can go on to
make ionic bonds with other atoms/
molecules.

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How to build a silicate mineral?
One silica tetrahedra (-4 charge)

Olivine: Mg2SiO4

Two Mg ions (+2 charge each)

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Silicate Arrangements

There are different ways to arrange silica

tetrahedra and associated positively
charged ions. They all effect the physical
properties of minerals.

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Silicate Arrangements
Tetrahedra are
joined by covalent
bonds, and
charge balanced
via ionic bonds
with other
elements.

i c a te s
e t S i l
: S h e
p l e
Exam

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 Common Silicate Minerals
Mica

(Sheet Silicate)

Quartz
Olivine

(Framework Silicate) (Independent tetrahedra)

Pyroxene

(Chain Silicate)
Amphibole
Feldspar

(Chain Silicate) (Framework Silicate) 46

 Carbonates
Calcite CaCO3

Another important class of minerals

that we will talk about in this course
are carbonates, which are composed
of covalently bonded carbonate
molecules (CO3)-2 that are ionically
bonded to other elements. 47
Mineral Growth, Destruction,

and Change

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Mineral Growth

Evaporation

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The Concept of Saturation

If a solution is saturated in a substance it

has dissolved the maximum amount of
that substance that it can. Any additional
amount of that substance will remain a
solid. Alternatively, if a solution is
undersaturated with the substance, the
substance will dissolve.

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 Physical Conditions and Saturation
What are some conditions that would affect whether a solution is
saturated in a substance?

Temperature Composition
Increases or decreases Increases or decreases the
kinetic energy and affects number of ions present in the
whether ions (charged liquid/gas and their tendency
particles) want to be in a solid to interact to form a solid.
or moving in a liquid/gas
Pressure
Increases or decreases the
amount of kinetic energy to
keep ions moving in a liquid/
gas 51
Magmas are Solutions

Magmas are liquid solutions dominated

by silica and minerals can crystallize from
them in the same ways that we just talked
about for water-dominated solutions.
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Reactions

Minerals can also change as conditions

change. They can react with new solutions or
rearrange their atomic structure to account for
higher and lower pressures or temperatures.

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Rust

A good example of this at

the surface of the Earth
would be the formation
of rust on iron bearing
substances when
exposed to water and
oxygen.

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Minerals in Your Life

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Mineral Collecting

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Minerals in your life
Evaporite

Gypsum CaSO4 2(H2O)

Drywall

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 Minerals in your life
Magnetite Fe3O4

Banded Iron Formations

Steel
Hematite Fe2O3
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Minerals in your life

Hectorite

Na3(Mg,Li)30Si40O100(OH)20

Evaporite

Li Batteries

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Rocks!

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 Rocks vs. Minerals

Rocks are aggregates

of minerals.

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The Rock Cycle

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 Igneous Rocks

Igneous rocks formed from

crystallization from a
magma (liquid rock). 63
 Sedimentary Rocks
Sedimentary rocks form through
accumulation of broken pieces of
other rocks or direct precipitation
from water.

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Metamorphic Rocks

Metamorphic rocks form when

changing conditions cause rocks to
recrystallize and/or melt
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 Atoms to Mountains
Atoms

Rocks

Minerals Landscapes
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 The First Part of this Class

Prior to Midterm I, we will be covering the solid

Earth and discussing how different types of rocks
form, what they can tell us about the Earth’s past
and present, and how they can inform us about
planetary-scale processes. In the next module
we will start with sedimentary rocks.

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