Minerals

Identify common rock-forming minerals using their

physical and chemical properties

 After going through this lesson, you are expected to:

 • Define minerals
 • Identify the different properties of a mineral
 • Classify minerals based on their chemical and
physical properties
• Minerals are the
ingredients of
rocks.

Or

• Rocks are made

up of minerals.
 Physical properties

citrine rose quartz

prasiolite milky quartz

1. COLOR

agate
amethyst

jasper
smoky quartz
Mineral Properties
 Used to identify minerals

Color
• Least useful property in identifying
minerals.
• Why?
All of these are varieties of quartz!
Streak
• The color of a minerals powder.
• “streak test”
Luster
• How the minerals surface reflects
light.
• Metallic vs. non- metallic.
 Luster
metallic adamantine

glassy

The luster of a mineral is the way its surface reflects light.

pearly dull
waxy
Hardness
• The ability of a mineral to resist being
scratched.
• “Scratch test”

• If mineral A can scratch mineral B, what

does that tell us about the relative
hardness of each mineral?
 Hardness-Mohs scale

1 talc 2 gypsum 3 calcite 4 fluorite 5 apatite

6 feldspar 7 quartz 8 topaz 9 corundum 10 diamond

Crystal Form
• Some minerals tend to form crystals that
aid in the identification of the mineral.
 Cleavage
Cleavage is the way a mineral breaks.

one direction two directions three directions

mica feldspar calcite
 Fracture
Fracture is breakage
that is not flat. The
two main kinds of
fracture are
conchoidal conchoidal (shell-
shaped, as in quartz)
and uneven.
Specific Gravity
• The ratio of the density of the mineral to
the density of water (1 g/cm3)

• If a mineral has a specific gravity of 5

that means it is 5 times as dense as
water.
Others
• Acid test – Calcite
• Magnetic – Magnetite
• Taste - Halite
A minerals properties are
due to the internal
arrangement of its atoms.
Rocks
Monomineralic
Polymineralic
• More
• 1than
Mineral
1 Mineral

 Rocks are classified by

how they are formed!!!
Characteristic Chemical Composition

Sulphur
Characteristic Chemical
Composition

Quartz
SiO2
 Characteristic Chemical
Composition

Tourmaline
(Ca,K,Na)
(Al,Fe,Li,Mg,Mn)3
(Al,Cr,Fe,V)6
(BO3)3 (Si,Al,B)6
O18(OH,F)4