WHAT IS IMPORTANT ABOUT

THERMAL
PROPERTIES?
Diamond Gypsum

 " There are two kinds of thermal properties that can be valuable
for mineral identification:

1. The "feel" of the specimen (the touch test).

2. Response to heating

Touch is helpful to categorize the thermal conductivity of a specimen.

Sulfur You can tell a lot with an experienced touch, or (especially with a small
specimen with a glossy surface) you can also breathe on a cool specimen
in your warm hand. If it is insulating, your breath might condense on the
surface. If it is conductive, the warmth of your fingers may rapidly
evaporate the moisture.

Insulating

These minerals are "warm" to the touch, and conduct heat poorly
Muscovite compared to most minerals. Well known examples are gypsum(which
is noticeably warmer to the touch than a similar specimen of quartz),
also sulfur, barite, and apatite. There can be some oddities. For
example,biotite andmuscovitehave average conductivity along the
sheets of the crystals, but are insulating normal to those sheets. The
difference is much more dramatic in graphite, approaching diamond
along the plane of the crystal, highly insulating normal to it. In reality,
many minerals have different thermal conduction on differing crystal
axes, but generally not so great as the micas let alone graphite.
Graphite
Average / normal

Unfortunately, most minerals have a thermal conductivity that can't

easily be distinguished by hand. These include common minerals such
as quartz and calcite.

Silver Conducting

These minerals are "cold" to the touch, as they rapidly conduct away
the warmth of your fingers. This includes most metals, but note
 thatdiamond has the highest thermal conductivity known (five times
higher than $#2, silver). There are a few other non-metallic minerals
with anomalously high thermal conductivity,
including corundum(sapphire & ruby),hematite, spinel, and pyrite.

Response to Heating: Some minerals have characteristic responses to

Cinnabar
heating, including:

Decomposing

Cinnabareasily reduces to metallic mercury, andgalenareduces to lead

(as the sulfur burns out of the compounds). Other minerals decompose
by losing water of hydration (gypsum turns to anhydrite,borax turns
Galena into tincalconite which in turn dehydrates to powdery anhydrous
borax, not a recognized mineral). Likewise, tremolitedehydrates into
diopside.

Melting

Minerals with a low melting point include mercury, sulfur, zinc, tin,

& lead (all elements).
Mercury Curling or Peeling

Some of the phyllosilicates(a subclass including clays and micas) are

known for leafing when heated. The mineral Pyrophyllite(fire-leaf) is
named for its ability to exfoliate into a flaky mass when heated.
Likewise, the name apophyllitemeans "to leaf apart". While not a
phyllosilicate, the mineral colemanitealso exfoliates when heated.

Expanding / Swelling
Pyrophyllite Vermiculite is known for extreme expansion when heated (the
vermiculite used in potting soil mixtures has already been expanded).

Other chemical changes

Amethyst can be turned intocitrine by heating; this involves a change

in oxidation state of the iron impurities which give both their colors.

Apophyllite Other characteristics:

Minerals containing sulfur often smell of sulfur dioxide when heated;

minerals containing arsenic often smell of garlic when heated.

Colemanite
 OTHER PROPERTIES:
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nce |Thermoluminescence | Index of Refraction |
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olubility | Electrical properties |Reaction to acids | Thermal
properties |Phantoms | Inclusions | Pseudomorphs |Meteoric
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