Name:_______________________________________________ Date:____________Period:__________

Answer Key - Minerals and How to Identify Them

Minerals are the building blocks of rocks.

What is a Mineral?

 inorganic
 Naturally occurring solids
 Has a definite chemical composition
 Has a crystalline structure

What does inorganic mean? Never has been alive, not made from plants or animals

Explain ‘naturally-occurring’. Formed naturally by Earth’s processes – from the Rock Cycle

Describe how minerals form from cooling magma. Different elements and compounds cool at different rates
which results in veins of gold, or crystals of quartz.

Definite chemical composition means that it is a pure substance, has the same composition throughout.

How are atoms arranged in minerals? The atoms are arranged in an orderly, bonded arrangement.

Why do large crystals form? long, slow cooling of the magma allows larger crystals to grow

Why do small crystals form? the magma cools quickly, not allowing time for the crystals to grow

Name 5 other properties that can describe minerals: any 5 will do: taste, smell, feel, double refraction, react
with acids, fluorescence, magnetic

On what basis are minerals classified? Classification is based on the chemical composition

What criteria are used to identify minerals? Physical properties such as hardness, streak, luster, breakage etc.

Can just one test be used to identify a mineral? No Why? Many minerals look alike. More properties need to be
studied in order to identify a mineral.
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The following properties are generally studied to identify minerals:

1. Color 5. Density

2. Luster 6. Crystal shape

3. Streak 7. Cleavage and/or Fracture

4. Hardness 8. Special Properties

On the back of this page, fill in the boxes with descriptions found on the rest of the
slides, so that you will have a reference sheet for identifying minerals.
Name:_______________________________________________ Date:____________Period:__________

Color
Describing the color of the mineral. Use of color as an identifier is unreliable because many
minerals have the same color, and some of the same minerals come in different colors. Good,
descriptive words are needed to describe the color.

Luster
This is the way a mineral reflects light. The two types of luster are: metallic and nonmetallic.
Metallic luster is shiny. Nonmetallic luster can be seen as many different reflections. Use
words such as dull, waxy, pearly, earthy, resinous, glassy, etc.

Streak
Steak is the color of the powder left on a streak plate after scratching it. Streak can be a
reliable test for identity.

Hardness
Hardness is the resistance to being scratched. Scratch a mineral with a material of known
hardness, and you can get an idea of its hardness. Mohs scale is used to determine the
hardness of a mineral by comparing it to known values. It ranges from 1-10, with 1 being the
softest. A field hardness test uses everyday objects to test the hardness such as fingernail,
penny, glass, and nail.

Specific Gravity
Specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of the mineral to the weight of an equal volume of
water. It compares the density of the mineral to the density of water.

Crystalline Structure
A repeating pattern of atomic structure causing the crystal to form a 3-D structure that can be
seen as a specific shape, such as cube, octahedron, rhombohedron, etc.

Breakage
If you break a mineral with a small hammer, it can break. If it forms relatively flat, smooth
layers, it is said to have Cleavage.
If it fractures into uneven, jagged pieces, it is said to have Fracture.