Minerals GEOL 1340

These flashcards cover definitions, formations, classifications, and properties of minerals essential for understanding the subject.

What is a Mineral?

A naturally occurring, inorganic, crystalline solid that has a specific chemical composition.

How do minerals form?

Minerals can form through solidification from melt, precipitation from solution, bioprecipitation, solid-state diffusion, and direct precipitation from vapor.

Definition of Crystalline

A structure that is regular, repeating, and orderly.

What are silicates?

Minerals that contain silicon and oxygen and make up more than 90% of the Earth's crust.

Major classes of minerals

Non-silicates include carbonates, sulphides, sulfates, oxides, phosphates, chlorides, and others classified by their anion.

Examples of Carbonate minerals

Calcite (CaCO3) and dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) are major examples of carbonates.

Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness

A scale from 1 to 10 that measures mineral hardness with talc at 1 and diamond at 10.

Physical Properties of Minerals

Properties such as color, streak, hardness, specific gravity, crystal form, and cleavage that help identify minerals.

What is bioprecipitation?

The formation of minerals through biological processes, often involving organisms.

What are the eight most abundant elements in Earth’s crust?

Oxygen (O), Silicon (Si), Aluminum (Al), Iron (Fe), Calcium (Ca), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), and Magnesium (Mg).