EARTH SCI REVIEW

1. L.O: REVIEW MINERALS & ROCKS

2. MINERALS ARE NATURALLY
OCURRING, INORGANIC SOLIDS.

3. EARTH’S ROCKS ARE MADE
MINERALS
THERE ARE OVER 2000 MINERALS,
BUT A DOZEN ARE COMMON.

4. Hard rocks are made of hard minerals.
Softer rocks of soft minerals

5. Which rock strata is made of the
hardest (most resistant to weathering)
minerals? How do you know?

6. Which rock strata is made of the
softest (least resistant to weathering)
minerals? How do you know?

7. Most minerals are made of the same
elements: especially oxygen & silicon

8. THE DOZEN COMMON MINERALS
ARE CALLED: THE ROCK FORMERS.
BECAUSE MOST OF EARTH’S ROCKS
ARE MADE FROM THEM.

9. MINERALS GET THEIR PHYSICAL
PROPERTIES FROM THE INTERNAL ATOMIC
(CRYSTALLINE) ARRANGEMENT OF THEIR
ATOMS.
EX: DIAMONDS AND GRAPHITE ARE PURE CARBON
ATOMS, BUT HAVE VERY DIFFERENT PROPERTIES
BECAUSE THEIR CARBON ATOMS ARE ARRANGED
DIFFERNTLY.

10. MANY, MANY, MANY MINERALS
ARE USEFULL TO HUMANS BECAUSE
OF THEIR UNIQUE PHYSICAL
PROPERTIES.
SEE PAGE 15 OF YOUR EARTH SCIE CE
REFERENCE TABLE.

11. SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY MINERALS THROUGH
THEIR PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL
PROPERTIES.
• COLOR
• HARDNESS
• STREAK
• LUSTER
• CLEAVAGE
• SPECIAL PROPERTIES.

12. On the regents, I will use
cleavage/fracture, luster, streak and
hardness to identify one mineral.

13. COLOR
• Some minerals can be identified by their color
ex: sulfur is always yellow.
• Color is NOT very useful because some
minerals come in different colors. Ex: quartz
comes in 7 colors
• Sometimes very different minerals have the
same color. Gold and pyrite are bright yellow.

14. Hardness: the ability of a mineral
to resist being scratched.
Hard minerals scratch soft minerals.

15. On the regents I will scratch my mineral on
a glass plate….

16. If my mineral is harder than glass, it will
scratch the glass plate….

17. If my mineral is softer than glass, it won’t
scratch the glass plate….

18. Moh’s scale lists the hardness of some
minerals

19. Moh’s scale is used to determine the
hardness of unknown minerals

20. Streak: is the powder residue when a
mineral is rubbed on a bathroom tile

21. A mineral’s Streak is like a “finger print”. Its
streak is always the SAME color.

22. On the regents I will see if my mineral leaves
colored streak or non-colored (white ) streak

23. Cleavage and fracture: how mineral
breaks into pieces.

24. Cleavage: minerals breaks into smooth
or flat pieces

25. fracture: minerals breaks into uneven
pieces

26. On the regents, I will see if my mineral
shows cleavage or fracture.

27. Luster: the shininess of the mineral.
If the mineral shines like metal, glass
or dull (no shine).

28. Metallic luster: shines like metal

29. non-metallic (glassy) luster: looks like
glass

30. Dull luster: does not shine.

31. On the regents, I will see if my
mineral has a metallic luster or non-
metallic luster.

32. Special properties
• The mineral sulfur has a rotten egg smell.
• Biotite mica looks like plastic.
• Halite tastes salty
• Calcium carbonate fizzes with acid.

33. I will use page 15 of the ESRT to
identify minerals.

34. Turn to page 191 of your green
workbook