Name: ______
Geology Chapter 2 – Minerals
Michael Wysession Washington University
Big Ideas Earth is mostly made of rock (2/3 by weight, 5/6 by volume). These rocks are made of minerals. There are more than 3800 different named minerals, though most rocks are made of only a small number of these.
Matter and Energy Atoms combine naturally to form minerals. Atoms consist of a nucleus, containing protons and neutrons, surrounded by clouds of electrons. Atoms have different properties when they occur as different isotopes (varying numbers of neutrons) and ions (varying numbers of electrons).
Forces and Motion Atoms bond in several different ways, including covalent, ionic, and metallic bonding. The electrical charge of ions and their sizes determine which atoms can combine in a stable manner to form minerals. Mineral grains or crystals are the accumulation of enormous numbers of atoms or ions bonding with a particular repeating structure. The manner in which the three-dimensional crystal lattice of atoms is constructed determines the mineral's characteristics, such as crystal form, luster, color, streak, hardness, fracture, cleavage, and density.
Earth as a System Most minerals form from the crystallization of magma, which is molten rock. Minerals can also form through precipitation, or by the alteration of existing minerals through changes in temperature and pressure. Because of the high abundance of the elements oxygen and silicon, most rocks are silicates, which usually involve combinations of silicon-oxygen tetrahedra with other elements.
Section 1 – Matter
1. What is everything in the universe made of?
2. What is matter?
3. List the states of matter here on Earth.
4. Compare the three states of matter.
5. What are the building blocks of minerals?
6. What is an element?
7. How have elements been organized?
8. What are the two ways each element are known by?
9. What are the rows in the periodic table called?
10. What are the columns in the periodic table called?
11. Name the eight elements that make up most of Earth’s continental crust.
12. What are compounds?
13. What is an atom?
14. Describe the nucleus of an atom.
15. What are electrons?
16. What is the atomic number?
17. Where are electrons located?
18. How are electrons, protons, and neutrons alike and how are they different?
19. What are isotopes?
20. What is the mass number of an atom?
21. If the nuclei of most atoms are stable why does radioactive decay occur?
22. Chemical ______of the atoms of elements are called ______.
23. What is a compound?
24. When an atom’s ______energy level does not contain the ______number of ______, the atom is likely to form a chemical ______with one or more other atoms.
25. What can chemical bonds be thought of?
26. What is an ion?
27. Where do ionic bonds form?
28. Some common compounds on Earth have both a ______name and a ______name. What happens when two or more atoms react?
29. The ______of a compound are ______from the properties of the ______in the compound.
30. What do ionic compounds contain?
31. What are some properties of ionic compounds?
32. When do covalent bonds form?
33. Describe some properties of covalent bonds.
34. What is a molecule?
35. When do metallic bonds form?
Section 2 – Minerals
36. Define what a mineral is.
37. List the five characteristics of minerals.
38. List the four major processes by which minerals form.
39. What happens when magma cools?
40. What happens when water evaporates?
41. An increase in ______can cause a mineral to ______while still solid.
42. Changes in ______can also cause certain minerals to become ______. Under these conditions, ______minerals form, which are ______at the new temperature.
43. What is a hydrothermal solution?
44. What happens when these solutions come in contact with existing minerals?
45. How can common minerals, together with the thousands of others that form on Earth be classified?
46. What combines to form a structure called the silicon-oxygen tetrahedron?
47. How do most silicate minerals form?
48. What are carbonates?
49. What are oxides?
50. What are sulfates and sulfides?
51. What are halides?
52. What are native elements?
53. Give some examples of native elements.
Section 3 – Properties of Minerals
54. Why is color often not a useful property in mineral identification?
55. What is streak?
56. How is streak obtained?
57. What is luster used to describe?
58. What is crystal form?
59. When a mineral forms ______and without ______restrictions, it will develop into a ______with well-formed faces – sides, top, and bottom.
60. What is hardness a measure of?
61. What does the Moho scale consist of?
62. ______is the tendency of a mineral to ______, or ______, along flat, even ______.
63. Minerals that do not show cleavage when broken are said to ______.
64. Define fracture.
65. What is density a property of?
66. What is the equation for finding density?
67. List six other ways some mineral can be recognized by.
68. A mineral’s ______depends on the ______that compose the mineral (its ______) and its ______(how its atoms are arranged).