The Rock Cycle and Earth

Materials
Lecture 2
 Minerals – Brief Overview
• A mineral is a naturally-occuring, inorganic,
crystalline solid with a defined chemical
composition
• Major mineral families: Table 2-1 in textbook
– Silicates (SiO4-4)
– Carbonates (CO3-2)
– Oxides (MeO)
– Sulfides (MeO)
– Native elements – pure forms of metals (Native Cu)
Mineral Identification Techniques
 I. X-ray
Diffraction

Figure 1: XRD pattern for synthetic goethite

1.2
XRD pattern for synthetic
goethite sample
1
Prominent peaks for crystalline
goethite
0.8
Relative Intensity

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Degrees
II. Optical Mineralogy

Calcite crystals under crossed polars.

 III. Physical or Determinative
Mineralogy
• Uses Physical Properties to identify minerals
– Crystallography and crystal habit
– Texture or luster
– Hardness
– Streak
– Density or specific gravity
– Color
– Special tests – magnetism, fizz test, fluorescence,
taste, etc.
 Crystallography: Crystal Systems

Cubic or Isometric Monoclinic

Orthorhombic

Tetragonal
Hexagonal Triclinic

Specific Minerals belong to each category. For example, Quartz and Calcite are
both Hexagonal Minerals. Galena is cubic.
 Luster
• Luster – how light reflects (or does not reflect)
from a mineral surface

Metallic Galena
Luster – Non-metallic

Adamantine -- Diamond

Vitreous (Glassy) -- Quartz

Luster – Non-metallic
Greasy -- Talc

Earthy -- Hematite
Luster – Non-metallic

Labradorescence –
Labradorite (a feldspar)

Silky -- Gypsum
Luster – Non-metallic

Chatoyancy -- Tiger’s Eye

variety of Quartz

Pearly – irridescent Opal

Hardness – Mohs Hardness Scale
Hardness Mineral
1 Talc
2 Gypsum
3 Calcite
4 Fluorite
5 Apatite
6 Potassium Feldspar
(Microcline)
7 Quartz
8 Topaz
9 Corundum (Ruby and
Sapphire)
10 Diamond
Hardness – Moh’s Hardness Scale
Common Items

Hardness Material
2.5 Fingernail
3.5 Copper Penny
5.0-5.5 Pen Knife/ Glass plate
6.5 Steel File
7 Streak Plate
Crystal Habit – a variety of terms cover
types of crystal morphologies

Rosettes of Gypsum
 Crystal Habit

Botryoidal Pyrolusite
 Crystal Habit

Acicular Rutile
 Crystal Habit

Dendritic Manganese Oxides

 Crystal Habit

Spherulitic Wavellite
Streak – the color of a powdered
sample of the mineral
 Cleavage and Fracture
• Cleavage – the consistent breakage of a
mineral along a preferred plane within the
crystal. Breakage is planar and may reflect
light.
• Fracture – the irregular breakage of a mineral
along a random surface
– Conchoidal – breaks in curved planes as in glass
– Splintery – breaks as splinters
Fluorite – has 4 directions of cleavage
Conchoidal fracture in Obsidian
Color – the worst property to use

Rose Quartz

Smokey Quartz Amethyst

Jasper
Agate
 Talc
Mg3Si4O10(OH)2
H=1
White, greenish, gray
Pearly luster
White streak
Feels greasy
 Gypsum
CaSO4•H2O
H=2
Various colors
Vitreous to silky luster
White streak
Variety of habits
 Calcite
CaCO3
H=3
Various colors
Vitreous to waxy luster
White streak
Variety of habits
3 directions of cleavage
 Fluorite
CaF2
H=4
Various colors
Vitreous luster
4 directions of cleavage (perfect)
 Apatite
Ca5(PO4)3(F,Cl,OH)
H=5
Greens, browns, etc
Vitreous to resinous
1 direction cleavage (poor)
Hexagonal crystals
 Microcline
KAlSi3O8
H=6
Pink, white, gray, green
Vitreous luster
Striations
White streak
 Quartz
SiO2
H=7
Conchoidal fracture
Various colors
Vitreous luster
No streak
Hexagonal crystals
massive
 Beryl
Be3Al2Si6O18
H=8
Various colors
Vitreous luster (sometimes waxy/resinous)
No streak
Massive or barrel-shaped crystals
Corundum
Al2O3
H=9
Various colors
Adamantine luster, no streak
Barrel-shaped crystals
 Diamond
C
H = 10
Various colors
Adamantine luster
No streak
Octahedral crystals
 Rocks
• Rock – an aggregate of mineral grains fused
together or cemented together
 Types of Rocks
• Igneous
• Metamorphic
• Sedimentary
 Igneous Rocks
• Form by cooling of molten material (magma)
• Extrusive rocks form from molten material (lava)
that reached the Earth's surface
• Intrusive rocks form within Earth
Important in Historical Geology
• Source of sediment for sedimentary rocks
• Absolute dating
• Their characteristics provide insights into
ancient history of tectonic plates
Light-colored igneous rocks (felsic)

Granite
Intermediate igneous rocks

Diorite
Dark-colored igneous rocks (mafic)

Gabbro
 Metamorphic Rocks
• Form by alteration of pre-existing rocks that are
heated and/or placed under increased pressure
• Their type depends on both the composition of
the original rock and the temperature and
pressure conditions of metamorphism
Important in Historical Geology
• Tectonic and burial history of rock bodies
• Despite alterations, may preserve data from
original rocks (e.g., mineral grains and fossils)
Schist
Gneiss
Migmatite
 Sedimentary Rocks
• Form by accumulation of sediments on Earth's surface by
air, water, ice, or biological agents
• Sediment derived by weathering and erosion or by
chemical/biogenic agents
• When sediments are cemented (lithified) they become
sedimentary rocks
• Different chemical, transport and depositional conditions
make different kinds of sediments
• Siliciclastic sedimentary rocks - made of sedimentary grains
from previous rocks
• Biogenic sedimentary rocks from organisms
• Chemical sedimentary rocks - chemical precipitation
 Shales and Sandstones

Shale with limestone

Sandstone

Siliciclastics
 Conglomerates

Siliciclastics
 Breccias

Siliciclastics
 Limestones

Biogenic
 Chemical Sediments

Negaunee B.I.F. from Jasper Knob, Ishpeming, Michigan

 Sedimentary Rocks
Primary Source of Data in Historical Geology
• Their features indicate the environment in
which they formed
• Provide fossils for relative age dating and
environmental interpretations
• Provide sedimentary grains that can be dated
and offer insight into pre-existing (now
eroded) rocks
 Rock Cycles
The Principle of Rock Transformation
• Any of the three basic kinds of rocks (igneous,
sedimentary or metamorphic) can be
transformed into another rock of the same
kind or either of the two other kinds

Rock Cycle
• The endless pathway along which rocks of
various kind change into rocks of other kinds
 Rocks and Time Units
• Rocks are records of the past and span some
interval of time
• Rocks are not perfect recorders of time for
three reasons:
• 1. They are internally incomplete
• 2. They are forming locally rather than globally
• 3. Their age changes laterally (diachronous)
 Rock Units
• Supergroup
– Group
• Formation
–Member
»Bed
 Formations and Facies
Formation
• Most basic unit is the formation (a distinctive
series of strata that originated through the same
formative processes)
• They can be mapped out in both map-view and
cross-section!
• Formations are rock bodies but not time units!
(Timelines often cut across formation boundaries)
The Rocks at the Grand Canyon
 Formations and Facies
• "Total aspect of strata" that make those strata
different from vertically/laterally adjacent units
• A particular three-dimensional body of sediment
designated as a facies grades by some change in its
properties into another facies
• Facies implies some environment-related
lateral/vertical changes in rock body
• Facies are not named formally
(they are not formations!)
• Facies Analysis - Reconstruction of past environments
and their shifts through time and space based on
description of facies
 Facies
• Purely descriptive or somewhat interpretive?

“The aspect, appearance, and characteristics

of a rock unit usually reflecting the conditions
of its origin; esp. as differentiating the unit
from adjacent or associated units” Glossary of
Geology 5th ed.
 Facies
1. Color
2. Framework grain composition as well as trace minerals (in siliciclastics)
and allochems (in carbonates and chemical sediments)
3. Grain characteristic s – grain size, grain sorting, degree of rounding
4. Diagenetic features – types of cement, degree of induration, etc.
5. Fossils
6. Sedimentary structures – biogenic (stromatolites, ichnofossils), abiogenic
(current-induced structures), and diagenetic (stylolites, cone-in-cone
etc.)
7. Bedding and layering -- scale
8. Rock Type

My Opinion – Once we have gathered this information, we can then interpret

the depositional environment!
 Scientific Method
Fact
• 1. Information presented as objectively real
• 2. A real occurrence; an event
• 3. Something having real, demonstrable existence

Hypothesis
• A tentative explanation that accounts for a set of facts and can be
tested by further investigation

Theory
• A system of assumptions, accepted principles, and rules of
procedure devised to analyze, predict, or otherwise explain the
nature or behavior of a specified set of phenomena
 The Basic Assumptions of Science
• The universe exists
• Although imperfect, properly made
observations do detect and reveal some
aspects of reality
• The fundamental properties of matter and
energy (whatever they are) do not change in
space or time (Uniformitarianism)
 How do we study the History of the
Earth?
• Rocks offer diverse records about history of the Earth and
life

• Environments in which those rocks formed is

reconstructed using laws of nature and observations from
the modern world

• Basic assumptions of science apply

• Uniformitarianism - Assumption that laws of nature do

not change through time and space is the most basic
assumption of Historical Geology
 Next time…
• We will discuss:
– Uniformitarianism vs. catastrophism
– Unconformities
– Walther’s Law
– Age Dating Geologic Events
– Stratigraphy