What is min-

eral?
Big Idea: Minerals are naturally occur-
ring, solids, inorganic compounds or
elements.

Miss Genevieve Chapter 12.2

What is a mineral?
Chapter 12:1 Vocabulary
• Mineral
Learning outcomes:
• Crystal • How are minerals defined?
• How do minerals form?
• Luster • How are minerals classified?
• Hardness
• Cleavage
• Fracture
• Streak
• Specific gravity
Do any of these words look familiar?
What is a mineral?
What do you think?

•Discuss what you think might have happened

in this picture.

Hint: It is cooler on Earth now than it

once was.
What is a mineral?
Minerals

1. If you were an explorer and were sent to look for

minerals.
2. What would you look for?
3. Where would you look for them?
4. How are they different from rocks?
What is a mineral?
Learning outcomes:
 How are minerals defined?
 How do minerals form?
 How are minerals classified?

Mineral – a natural occurring,

inorganic solid, with a definite
composition, and an orderly
arrangement of atoms.
What is a mineral?
Minerals characteristics:
1. Formed by natural processes.
2. Inorganic
3. Crystal – a solid in which the atoms are arranged in a
pattern that is repeated over and over again.

Learning outcomes:
 How are minerals defined?
 How do minerals form?
 How are minerals classified?
What is a mineral?
Define minerals by completing the chart below.
Rewrite each part of the definition in your own
words.
How do minerals form?
Two ways in which minerals can form-
1) crystallization of magma.
2) crystallization of materials dissolved in water

1.Crystallization – The process by which atoms are

arranged to form a material with a crystal structure
How do minerals form?
Two ways in which minerals can form- 1)
3. crystallization
Minerals fromofMagma
magma,and Lava – When these
2) crystallization of liq-
uids cool dissolved
materials to a solid in
state, they form crystals
water
How do minerals form?
4. Size of crystals depends on –
4.1 the rate at which the magma/lava cools,
4.2 the amount of gas the magma/lava contains,
4.3 the chemical composition of the magma/lava
 How do minerals
form?
5. Solution – A mixture in which one
substance is dissolved in another
How do minerals form?

6. Minerals formed by Evaporation –

When ancient seas slowly evaporated,
minerals formed (halite, gypsum, calcite)
 How do minerals form?
7. Minerals from Hot Water Solutions – Elements that form
minerals dissolve in hot water underground; when the solution cools,
the elements crystallize as minerals

• These iron-rich
• minerals formed at
an undersea vent
How do minerals form?
8. Vein – A narrow channel or slab of a mineral that is different
from the surrounding rock; usually pure metals

Silver Vein in Mexico

How are minerals classified?

Hardness
Luster

Cleavage Streak
How are minerals classified?

Luster
• Refers to the way light reflects from the surface
of the mineral.
• There are two types of luster,
 Metallic: looks like polished metal.
 Nonmetallic: does not look like polished
metal.

Nonmetallic can be shiny or dull.

How are minerals classified?
Quartz has Pyrite has
nonmetallic metallic luster
luster
 How are minerals classified?
Hardness

1. Is measured by how easy it is to scratch.

2. Geologists order the hardness by…
Scratched by a fingernail.
Scratched by a penny.
Scratched by a nail.
Scratched by a diamond.
How are minerals classified?

Gypsum is soft, it can be scratched by a

fingernail.

Calcite is soft, but a little harder because it

cannot be scratched by a fingernail, but it
can be scratched by a penny.

Fluorite is harder. It can be scratched by a

nail, but not a penny or fingernail.

Diamonds are the hardest mineral, so it

scratches every mineral.
How are minerals classified?

Cleavage
• Not all minerals have cleavage.
• Some minerals split easily along a
flat surface.
• The number of lines that are created
when a mineral is split will be the
number of cleavage lines.
How are minerals classified?

Mica has cleavage in one

direction.
It breaks along one line.

Feldspar has two lines of

cleavage. It breaks along
two lines.
How are minerals classified?

Streak
• Red chalk on a chalk board makes red
marks. White chalk makes white marks.
• Not all minerals work this way. When
some minerals are scratched along a
ceramic streak plate, it creates a different
color.
How are minerals classified?
Gold When gold is run across a
streak plate it makes a
yellowish-gold color.
That makes sense.

Pyrite or When pyrite is run across a

streak plate, it has a black or
“Fool’s dark green streak.
Gold” Pyrite is not worth much
money, while gold is worth a
lot. They look alike, so
miners call it fool’s gold.

Hematite’s color is grey,

Hematite but its streak is red.
Hema means blood.
The mineral was named
hematite because it looked
like it was bleeding when it
was taken across a streak
plate.
Bookwork