Matter and Minerals : Concepts from Essentials

Minerals

The building blocks of rocks

Mineral

Any naturally occurring inorganic solid that possesses an orderly crystalline structure and a definite chemical composition that allows for some variation.

Rock

Any solid mass of mineral, or min- eral-like, matter that occurs naturally as part of our planet.

Rock

An aggregate of one or more minerals

Chert and Flint

First mined minerals

Bronze

When cooper and thin is combined, the alloy formed is


Gold
Silver
Bronze
Iron

Atoms

Basic unit of matter and the smallest particles.

Proton

A positively charged particle in the nucleus of an atom

Neutron

A subatomic particle that has no charge and that is found in the nucleus of an atom

Electron

A subatomic particle that has a negative charge

Atomic Number

The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom

Native

A metal is called ________ when it is found in its pure form in nature.

Karats

A measure of the weight of the gold content of jewelry; abbreviated as K

24 karats

How many karats is pure gold?

Octet Rule

States that atoms lose, gain or share electrons in order to acquire a full set of eight valence electrons.

Chemical Bond

Is a transfer or sharing of electrons that allows each atom to attain a full valence shell of electrons.

Ionic Bond

When the valence electrons (positively and negatively charged atoms) are transferred between the elements to form ions.

Covalent Bond

A chemical bond that involves sharing a pair of electrons between atom

Metallic Bond

When the valence electrons are shared among all the atoms in a substance.

Luster

The appearance or quality of light reflected from the surface of a mineral.

Color

Most ambiguous characteristic of a mineral.

Streak

The color of a mineral in a powdered form

Opaque

When no light is transmitted through a mineral sample

Translucent

When light is transmitted through a mineral sample, but not an image.

Transparent

When both light and an image are visible through the sample.

Hardness

A measure of the resistance of a mineral to abrasion or scratching.

Mohs Scale

Consists of 10 minerals arranged in order from 1 (softest) to 10 (hardest) from which numerical value of hardness can be obtained.

Cleavage

The tendency of a mineral to break (cleave) along planes of weak bonding.

Tenacity

Describes a mineral's resistance to breaking, bending, cutting, or other forms of deformation.

Specific Gravity

Is a number representing the ratio of a mineral's weight to the weight of an equal vol- ume of water.

Feldspar Group

The most abundant silicate group.

Quartz

The second-most-abundant mineral in the continental crust and the only common silicate mineral that consists entirely of silicon and oxy- gen.

One of the world's heaviest cut and polished gemstones is a 22,892.5 carat golden yellow topaz.