Basic Properties Of Minerals
- 1. Properties of Minerals Earth’s Surface 2.2 (pg. 51-57) Ms. Wells, Science
- 2. Properties of Minerals: Why do we care? Property – characteristic, quality or trait of something Used to IDENTIFY a mineral Is it salt? Is it quartz? Is it talc? Who knows! TEST the properties to find out!
- 3. Properties of Minerals: Which are the most important? Streak Luster Cleavage or Fracture Density Hardness
- 4. Appearance Property: Streak Streak – color of the powder a mineral leaves behind when you scrape it across something Shows true color better than looking at a whole mineral Use “streak plate” made of porcelain
- 5. Appearance Properties: Luster Luster – the way a mineral reflects light (QUALITATIVE OBSERVATION ) Luster Terms: Metallic – shiny like a metal Non metallic – not shiny like metal Oily – feels or looks greasy Glassy – shiny like glass Dull – plain, earthy
- 8. Breaking Properties: Cleavage or Fracture Cleavage – mineral breaks along a flat surface or into sheets Fracture – when a mineral breaks with lots of jagged edges
- 9. Property: Density Density – mass divided by volume of a mineral (in other words: how heavy it is for how much space it takes up) GOLD is denser than PYRITE (“Fool’s Gold”) Feels heavier
- 10. Fracture or Cleavage? Determined by the crystal structure of the mineral Crystal structure – how atoms of the mineral are arranged (special order of the atoms) ALL minerals have crystal structure, but there are different kinds
- 12. Property: Hardness Hardness – a mineral’s resistance to being scratched test what can scratch it and what it can scratch Use “Moh’s Scale” to assign hardness Scale of 1 to 10 10 = hardest = diamond! 1 = softest = talc!
- 14. Extra Special Properties 1. Fluorescence Fluorescent color under ultraviolet (UV) light 2. Magnetic Attract magnets 3. Acid reaction Carbon dioxide gas bubbles off when you drop acid on them Carbonates!
- 15. Fluorescence
- 16. Magnetic
- 18. The End! YAY!