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1.Minerals 2
Minerals are solid substances formed in nature 3 Vocabulary minerals A solid substance formed in natured
Minerals are made of materials that were never alive A mineral always has the same chemical make-up 4
The atoms of a mineral are arranged in regular patterns and form shapes called crystals 5
6 Vocabulary: crystals A solid in which the atoms are arranged in regular patterns
7 Most minerals are formed by magma Vocabulary Magma The hot liquid rock inside Earth
8 When magma cools slowly, minerals with large crystals are formed
When magma cools quickly minerals with small crystals form 9 DoleriteGabbro
Some minerals, like sulfur, are made up of one kind of atom There are about 3,000 different minerals on Earth 10
Others, like quartz, are made of more than one kind of atom 11
Minerals have properties that can be used to identify them 12 One of these properties is streak
13 Vocabulary streak The color of a mineral when it is in powdered form
Sulfur is always yellow 14 Other minerals, like quartz, may be found in many colors
Luster, cleavage, and hardness are other properties used to identify minerals 15
16 Vocabulary: luster Describes how shiny a mineral is when light hits it
17 Some minerals, like sulfur, are dull Some minerals, like gold, are very shiny
18 Vocabulary: cleavage The way a mineral breaks
19 Mica breaks in one direction and forms sheets Sulfur breaks into many uneven pieces
20 Vocabulary: hardness The ability of a mineral to be scratched
21 Some minerals are so soft that they can be scratched by a fingernail Diamond, the hardest mineral, can scratch any other mineral
22 In 1824, Friedrich Mohs developed a list of common minerals to compare their hardness called the Mohs Scale “Click me and I will sing for you” Says Taylor