Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic substances with a crystalline structure. They make up many aspects of our lives and humans need at least 16 minerals to survive, though they comprise just 0.03% of our diet. Minerals form in various ways including cooling of magma, evaporation, and hydrothermal processes. The most abundant minerals on Earth are silicates and oxides of silicon and oxygen, which compose 70% of the Earth's crust and are the building blocks of most rocks. Minerals can be identified by their physical properties such as crystal structure, cleavage, fracture, color, hardness, luster, and streak.

1. Minerals

2. What is a mineral?
• Naturally occurring
• Inorganic
• Crystalline structure
Halite, salt, sodium
chloride

3. Minerals make-up many
practical parts of our lives

4. Humans cannot survive without
minerals
• 16 minerals needed
for humans to survive
• .03% of what we eat
but we would not
survive without the
minerals
• Sodium, potassium,
calcium, magnesium,
copper, phosphorous

5. Glass is made from 6 minerals
• Silica
• Limestone
• Magnesium
• Boric acid
• Soda
• Aluminum
• 40 billion glass
containers/year in USA
• 35 % are recycled

6. Gold in California
• Discovered in the
American River, 1848
• Gold Rush- 1849
• Population of SF- 575
males,177 females, 60
children- March, 1848
• 100,000- December 1849
• Chinese, Welsh, German,
English, Mexican,
Spanish and French
• Diversity of California

7. Salt
• Early people collected salt
before they understood
how important the mineral
is for survival
• Mediterranean-salt cakes
were used as money
• Greeks traded salt for
slaves
• England flourished when
fuel for boiling brine
changed from wood to coal

8. Minerals are mined for our use
Magmatic copper, magnetite, uranium

9. Eight elements make-up 99% of
the Earth’s crust
Silicon and oxygen make-up 70 % of the Earth’s crust

10. Mineral
Formation
• Cooling of magma:
crystallization
• Evaporation: salt
• Hydrothermal

11. Silicate minerals are the building
block of igneous rocks
Mountains, British Columbia
Granite: individual minerals
make-up the rock

12. Minerals are the building block
of rocks
Feldspar crystal
Biotitie
Quartz
Hornblende

13. Minerals can be identified by
physical properties
• Crystal habit
• Cleavage
• Fracture
Quartz has a conchoidal fracture Mica has a single, perfect cleavage
Equant garnet: same dimension in
all directions

14. Color
malachite
sulfur
apatite

15. Hardness
How the mineral can
be scratched
• Fingernail
• Penny
• File or knife

16. Streak
• Minerals leave a
distinct residue on a
porcelain plate

17. Luster
• Metallic or non-metallic

18. Mineral Classification: based on
dominant element
Pyrite: fool’s gold; FeS2
Sulfides: contains the element sulfur
Galena: PbS; important ore of
lead

19. • Carbonates: contains calcium carbonate; CaCO3
Mineral Classification: based on
dominant element
Calcite: CaCo3
Dolomite: CaMg(CO3)2

20. Summary
• Mineral definition
• How do minerals form?
• Read and understand information associated
with the periodic table of the elements
• Be able to sketch a diagram of an atom:
hydrogen, helium, carbon, sodium, chlorine
• How are minerals classified: rock forming
minerals? Silicates, sulfides, carbonates
• Name and describe the physical characteristics
to distinguish minerals.