MINERALS

• Naturally Occurring
• Inorganic
• Chemical Compounds

• About 5000 Known

• 200 Rock-Forming
MINERALS

• More than 90% on the crust is

composed of silicate minerals.
• Most abundant silicates are
feldspars, quartz, pyroxenes,
amphiboles, micas and clay
minerals.
• Only 8% of the crust is
composed of non-silicates —
carbonates, oxides, sulfides, etc
Identifying Minerals
• Color: very variable, complex causes
• Hardness: strength of atomic bonds
• Density: mass and spacing of atoms
• Lustre: how surface interacts with light
• Cleavage: weak atomic planes
• Other properties distinctive at times
Properties of Minerals
Hardness
• Measures resistance to scratching
• If a substance is able to scratch another substance, it is harder
• Moh’s Scale used to test minerals
Properties of Minerals
Lustre
• Describes how light is reflected from a minerals surface
• Does not relate to its colour
• Basic divisions: metallic and non-metallic
• Other divisions: pearly, glassy, resinous…........
Properties of Minerals
Cleavage
• When crystals break, they split along straight faces called cleavage planes which are
weak due to the atomic structure of the crystal.
Properties of Minerals
Cleavage
• Mica has one
cleavage plane
Properties of Minerals
Cleavage
• Calcite has two planes
at 60 and 120 degrees
Properties of Minerals
Cleavage
• Quartz does not have
any planes of
weakness so does not
cleave (split along
planes). When it breaks
we say that it fractures,
leaving glassy
conchoidal edges
Properties of Minerals
Streak
• streak is the colour of the powered
mineral
• found by scratching the sample on an
unglazed white tile (streak plate).
• even with impurities, the colour of the
streak remains consistent.
Properties of Minerals

Mineral Streak Hardness Lustre Cleavage

Calcite

Galena