1. Earth Materials: Rocks and Minerals

2. SC Students will: classify earth materials by the ways that they are used; explain how their properties make them useful for different purposes.

3. Earth materials… Provide resources for humans to use
Have different properties that can be used to sort, describe, and classify them

4. Earth materials can be described by…
Texture
Hardness
Color
Luster
Streak
Breakage

5. Texture
Texture is how the material feels:
soft
hard
smooth
rough

6. What is hardness?
"Hardness is a measure of how difficult or easy it is for a substance to be penetrated or scratched! For example, steel (like a steel nail) can scratch your fingernail, so steel is harder than fingernail!!"
Mohs' Scale & Castle of Doom

7. What is color?
"The color of a mineral is the color of a fresh, unweathered surface seen in white light."

8. Luster Luster is the way a mineral shines or does not shine.
Luster can be described as:
Metallic – looks like shiny metal
Non-metallic
glassy – shines like a piece of broken glass
dull – no shine at all
pearly – looks oily, with a slight rainbow color
adamantine – sparkling/shiny like a diamond

9. What is streak?
"A streak is the mark a mineral leaves when you rub it on an unglazed, porcelain tile. The tile - like some bathroom floor tiles - is known as a streak plate! The mark is actually a powder!"

10. What is breakage?
"Very simple! There are two major ways in which minerals break when you give them a hit: (1) they can break irregularly, in which case we say they 'have fracture'; or (2) they can break along parallel, planar (flat) surfaces, in which case we say they 'have cleavage'! Look at the two pictures!"

11. Now let’s apply what you have learned and see what rocks and minerals are used for!
Rocks and Soils