Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Identification of Minerals
Identification of Minerals
RocksForKids.com
Identifying Minerals
Difference between rocks & minerals
Field Guides & Mineral Books
Mineral Identification
Properties of Minerals
Color
Luster
Specific Gravity
Crystal Form
Cleavage
Fracture
Tenacity
Hardness
Transmitting Light
Streak
Glossary of Words & Phrases
ROCKS
Rock Words: There are many common names for rocks and the
usually give you an idea of how big the rock is. Here are a few:
MINERALS
MINERAL IDENTIFICATION
Mineralogy Database
Mineral Identification Maintained in Australia
Minerals by Class Maintained by Amethyst Galleries Inc.
Minerals by Name Maintained by Amethyst Galleries Inc.
PROPERTIES OF MINERALS
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COLOR
streaked
splotchy, mottled, speckled
layered, banded
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LUSTER
Words used to describe the way light reflects off of the surface of a
mineral:
shiny, sparkly
shimmering, opalescent
frosted, milky
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SPECIFIC GRAVITY
Specific Gravity (SG) indicates how many times more the mineral weighs
compared to an equal amount of water (SG 1).
Gemstones are sold by weight. A chart that relates to the specific gravity of
gemstones can be found at:
http://www.gemselect.com:80/calibrated-size/calibrated-size-chart.php
Because of specific gravity, that means that 2 different gems that are the
same size weigh different amounts.
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CRYSTAL FORM
When minerals have the time & space to grow into their
crystal forms,
they grow to beautiful regular shapes that are easy to
recognize once you have seen a few examples.
Some words used to describe crystal forms or shapes are:
CLEAVAGE
FRACTURE
TENACITY
Tenacity is how tough a mineral is, how easily a mineral will break,
split, crumble or change shape. Terms used to describe this trait are:
HARDNESS
8 Very
Topaz
Hard
9
Used in industrial tools for cutting,
Extremely Corundum
grinding & sanding.
Hard
10 The Diamond is used to cut all minerals
Diamond
Hardest including diamonds.
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STREAK
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Basic Definitions