COMMON ROCK-FORMING

MINERALS
for EARTH and LIFE SCIENCE/Grade 11
Quarter 1/ Week 2

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What is a mineral?
How is a mineral different from a rock?

➢ Minerals are the building blocks of rocks. These minerals that

are common and abundant on Earth’s crust are known as rock-
forming minerals.
➢ There are five important characteristics which define a mineral:
❖ Naturally-occurring (NOT man-made or machine
generated)
❖ Inorganic (not a byproduct of living things)
❖ Solid (should exhibit stability at room temperature)
❖ Crystalline structure (looks like crystals since the
arrangement of their atoms is ordered and repetitive)
Can be represented by a chemical formula (most minerals are
chemical compounds and can be represented using a fixed or
variable chemical formula. For example: quartz (SiO2) which
indicates that the mineral quartz contains one silicon atom and two
oxygen atoms).

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MINERAL POPERTIES
Minerals can be identified based on physical and chemical
properties.

A. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:

We are going to use halite (table salt) to demonstrate the different

mineralName
Mineral properties. Halite (table salt)
Chemical composition NaCl
Luster Non-metallic – vitreous; transparent to
translucent
Hardness Soft (2-2.5)
Color White
Streak White
Crystal Form/Habit Cubic
Cleavage Perfect cubic
Specific Gravity Light (2.2)
Other Properties Salty taste; very soluble; produces reddish spark
in flame

1. Luster
❖ it is the quality and intensity of reflected light exhibited by the
mineral.

a. metallic – generally opaque and exhibit a resplendent shine

similar to a polished metal.

b. non-metallic – vitreous (glassy), adamantine

(brilliant/diamond-like), resinous, silky, pearly, dull (earthy),
greasy, among others.

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 (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Properties-of-
Minerals-Luster-5E-Activity-3959187)

2. Hardness
❖ it is a measure of the resistance of a mineral (not specifically
surface) to abrasion.

a. German geologist/mineralogist Friedrich Mohs designed the

“Mohs Scale of Hardness”.

(https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/friedrich-mohs.html)
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b. The “Mohs Scale of Hardness” measures the scratch
resistance of various minerals from a scale of 1 to 10, based on
the ability of a harder material/mineral to scratch a softer one.

c. Advantages of Mohs scale:

i. The test is easy.
ii. The test can be done anywhere, anytime, as long as
there is sufficient light to see scratches.
iii. The test is convenient for field geologists with scratch
kits who want to make a rough identification of minerals outside
the lab.

d. Disadvantages of Mohs scale:

i. The scale is qualitative, not quantitative.
ii. The test cannot be used to accurately test the hardness
of industrial materials.

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 (https://www.nps.gov/articles/mohs-hardness-scale.htm)
Big Idea:
• If you will be able to scratch a mineral using your finger
nail, then its hardness is around 1 – 2.5.
• If you will be able to scratch a mineral using a coin, then
its hardness is around 2.5 – 3.5.
• If you will be able to scratch a mineral using a knife or
glass plate, then its hardness is around 3.5 – 5.5.
• If you will be able to scratch a mineral using a steel nail,
then its hardness is around 5.5 -6.5.
• If you will be able to scratch a mineral using a masonry
drill, then its hardness is around 6.5 to 8.5.
• If you will not be able to scratch a mineral using all the
materials mentioned above, then its hardness is around
8.5 – 10.
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 • From the picture above, we can say that diamonds are
the hardest and talc is the least hard.
3. Crystal Form/Habit
❖ The external shape of a crystal or groups of crystals is
displayed/observed as these crystals grow in open spaces.
❖ The form reflects the supposedly internal structure (of atoms
and ions) of the crystal (mineral)
❖ It is the natural shape of the mineral before the development of
any cleavage or fracture.
❖ Examples include: prismatic, tabular, bladed, platy, reniform,
and equant.
❖ A mineral that do not have a crystal structure is described as
amorphous.

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 (http://www.geologyin.com/2019/10/crystal-habits-and-forms.html)

4. Color and Streak

❖ A lot of minerals can exhibit same or similar colors. Individual
minerals can also display a variety of colors resulting from
impurities and also from some geologic processes like
weathering.
❖ Examples of coloring: quartz can be pink (rose quartz), purple
(amethyst), orange (citrine), white (colorless quartz) etc.

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 (https://openpress.usask.ca/physicalgeology/chapter/5-6-mineral-properties-2/)

❖ Streak on the other hand, is the mineral’s color in powdered

form. It is inherent in almost every mineral, and is a more
diagnostic property compared to color. Note that the color of
a mineral can be different from its streak.
❖ Examples of streak: pyrite (FeS2) exhibits gold color but has a
black or dark gray streak.

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(https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/1005344/view/pyrite-streak-
test)

5. Cleavage
❖ The property of some minerals to break along specific planes of
weakness to form smooth, flat surfaces.

a. These planes exist because the bonding of atoms making up

the mineral happens to be weak in those areas.

b. When minerals break evenly in more than one direction,

cleavage is described by the number of cleavage directions,
the angle(s) at which they meet, and the quality of cleavage
(e.g. cleavage in 2 directions at 90o).

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 c. Cleavage is different from habit; the two are distinct,
unrelated properties. Although both are dictated by crystal
structure, crystal habit forms as the mineral is growing, relying
on how the individual atoms in the crystal come together.
Cleavage, meanwhile, is the weak plane that developed after
the crystal is formed.

(http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/geology/grocha/mineral
/cleavage.html)

6. Specific Gravity
❖ The ratio of density of the mineral and the density of water.
❖ This parameter indicates how many times more the mineral
weighs compared to an equal amount of water (SG 1).
❖ For example, a bucket of silver (SG 10) would weigh ten times
more than a bucket of water.
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 (https://www.rocksmins.com/products/physical-properties-used-to-
identify-minerals-collections/minerals-specific-gravity-collection)
7. Others
❖ Magnetism
❖ Odor
❖ Taste
❖ Tenacity
❖ Reaction to acid
For example, magnetite is strongly magnetic; sulfur has distinctive
smell; halite is salty; calcite fizzes with acid as with as with dolomite
but in powdered form.

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Although physical properties are useful for mineral identification,
some minerals may exhibit a wide range of properties. Minerals, like
many other things, can also be categorized based on their chemical
compositions: Silicates, Oxides, Sulfates, Sulfides, Carbonates, Native
elements, and Halides.

B. CHEMICAL PROPERTIES:

1. Silicates
❖ Minerals containing the two most abundant elements in the
Earth’s crust, namely, silicon and oxygen.
❖ When linked together, these two elements form the silicon
oxygen tetrahedron – the fundamental building block of
silicate minerals.
❖ Over 90% of rock-forming minerals belong to this group.

1. Oxides
❖ Minerals composed of oxygen anion (O2-) combined with one
or more metal ions.

2. Sulfates
❖ Minerals containing sulfur and oxygen in the form of the (SO4)-
anion.

3. Sulfides
❖ Minerals containing sulfur and a metal; some sulfides are
sources of economically important metals such as copper,
lead, and zinc.

4. Carbonates
❖ Minerals containing the carbonate (CO3)2- anion combined
with other elements.

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6. Native elements
❖ Minerals that formed as individual elements.

a. metals and intermetals – minerals with high thermal and

electrical conductivity, typically with metallic luster, low
hardness (gold, lead)

b. semi-metals – minerals that are more fragile than metals and

have lower conductivity (arsenic, bismuth).

c. nonmetals – nonconductive (sulfur, diamond)

7. Halides
❖ Minerals containing halogen elements combined with one or
more metals.

The table below shows the summary of mineral group categorization

based on their chemical compositions.
Element Element Element + Element + Element Element + Element
+ SiO O SO +S +
CO3
Halogens

Native Silicate Oxide Sulfate Sulfide Carbonate Halide

Gold Quartz Hematite Gypsum Pyrite Calcite Chlorine
Bismuth Olivine Magnetite Barite Galena Dolomite Fluorine
Diamond Talc Chromite Anhydrite Bornite Malachite Halite

The elements listed below comprise almost 99% of the minerals

making up the Earth’s crust.
Element Symbol %by weight of %atoms
Earth’s crust
Oxygen O 46.6 62.6
Silicon Si 27.7 21.2
Aluminum Al 8.1 6.5
Iron Fe 5.0 1.9

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Calcium Ca 3.6 1.9
Sodium Na 2.8 2.6
Potassium K 2.6 1.4
Magnesium Mg 2.1 1.8
All other 1.4 <0.1
elements