1. Minerals

2. What is a mineral?  Solid  Cannot be a liquid or a gas  Naturally occurring  Cannot be man-made  Inorganic  Cannot be the result of a living thing

3. What is a mineral?  Fixed composition  Must be made of specific chemicals in specific ratios  Most are compounds, some are only elemental like gold  Crystalline structure  Form specific geometric shapes because of the arrangement of the atoms it contains (crystals)

4. Is this a mineral?

15. How minerals form  Magma cooling inside the earth  Forms large crystals because of the amount of time it takes to cool  Lava cooling quickly on the surface of the earth  Usually forms smaller crystals because of the rapid cooling time

17. How minerals form  Elements and compounds dissolve in water  When the water evaporates, we are left with the minerals

18. Identifying minerals  Color  Some minerals have the same color, so this is the least accurate way to identify minerals

19. Identifying minerals  Streak  The color of the powder left behind when scraped on a piece of glass or porcelain

20. Identifying minerals  Luster  How the mineral reflects light  The main 2 lusters are “metallic” and “non- metallic”

21. Identifying minerals  Some other ways to describe luster are:  Dull - just a non-reflective surface of any kind  Earthy - the look of dirt or dried mud  Fibrous - the look of fibers  Greasy - the look of grease  Gumdrop - the look a sucked on hard candy  Metallic - the look of metals  Pearly - the look of a pearl  Pitchy - the look of tar  Resinous - the look of resins such as dried glue or chewing gum  Silky - the look of silk, similar to fibrous but more compact  Submetallic - a poor metallic luster, opaque but reflecting little light  Vitreous - the most common luster, it simply means the look of glass  Waxy - the look of wax

22. Identifying minerals  Cleavage and fracture ( The way a mineral breaks)  Cleavage means to break along flat planes  Fracture means to break in irregular pieces Cleavage Fracture

23. Identifying minerals  Hardness  How easily a mineral is scratched  We use the Moh’s Hardness Scale to compare

24. Identifying minerals  Density  Density = mass ÷ volume  Most minerals will have different densities

25. Identifying minerals  Crystal structure  We classify minerals by the angles and numbers of crystal faces a mineral has.

26. Identifying minerals  Fluorescence  Some minerals will glow in UV light

27. Identifying minerals  Magnetic  Some minerals will attract metals like a magnet

28. Identifying minerals  Reacts with acids  Some minerals will bubble and decompose when exposed to acids

29. REMEMBER  Some (Streak)  Llamas (Luster)  Climb (Color)  Down (Density)  Funny (Fracture/Cleavage)  Hills (Hardness)