1.4 Physical and Chemical Properties The physical properties of minerals include name, crystal system, color as it appears to the naked eye, streak by rubbing on streak plate, luster, hardness on the Mohs scale, and average specific gravity.
What are six special properties of minerals?
- fingernail- 2 to 2.5 on the Mosh scale
- Copper penny or house wire-3 on the Mosh scale
- Glass-5.5 on the Mosh scale
- knife-5.5 to 6 on the Mosh scale
- Steel file-6.5 on the Mosh scale
- Streak plate (unglazed ceramic tile)- 6.5 to 7 on the Mosh scale
What determines Meany physical properties of minerals?
- You can identify a mineral by its appearance and other properties.
- The color and luster describe the appearance of a mineral, and streak describes the color of the powdered mineral.
- A mineral has a characteristic density.
- Mohs hardness scale is used to compare the hardness of minerals.
Which properties are used to identify minerals?
- Colour
- Texture
- Density
- Luminescence
- Crytallography
- Magnetism
- Chemical reaction to acid
- Smell
- Morphology
- Irradescence
Which determines the chemical properties of minerals?
What determines the chemical properties is : color, hardness, luster, crystal forms, density, and cleavage.
What are the physical properties of mineral?
Most minerals can be characterized and classified by their unique physical properties: hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, and tenacity.
What is chemical property of a mineral?
Chemical properties of minerals show the presence and arrangement of atoms in minerals. Using their chemical properties, minerals are identified by how they react to certain substances.
What are the 5 chemical properties of mineral?
Properties that help geologists identify a mineral in a rock are: color, hardness, luster, crystal forms, density, and cleavage.
What are the ten physical properties of minerals?
What are the 10 properties of minerals? Some of the properties of minerals are as follows: color, streak, hardness, luster, diaphaneity, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, magnetism, solubility, and many more. These physical properties are useful for identifying minerals.
Why do minerals differ in physical and chemical properties?
The atoms are arranged in the same way in every piece of salt. Sometimes two different minerals have the same chemical composition. But they are different minerals because they have different crystal structures.
Why is it important to consider the physical and chemical properties of minerals?
The physical properties of minerals are related to their chemical composition and bonding. Some characteristics, such as a mineral's hardness, are more useful for mineral identification.
What are the physical properties of rocks?
Physical Characteristics of Rocks - Cleavage, Streak, Hardness, Fracture, Luster.
Which of the following is a physical property?
Physical properties include color, density, hardness, and melting and boiling points.
Why do minerals have different chemical properties?
Answer and Explanation: Minerals have different properties because they are made out of different elements. Minerals can be made of silicon, carbon, phosphorus, oxygen, iron, calcium, magnesium, and many other native elements. These native elements have different properties based on how many electrons they have.
What are the two main properties of minerals?
A mineral species is defined by two distinct properties: (1) its chemical com- position and (2) its crystal structure. Each mineral has a distinct three- dimensional array of its constituent atoms. This regular geometry affects its physical properties such as cleavage and hardness.
Do minerals have definite chemical composition?
A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic solid with a definite chemical composition and an orderly geometric arrangement of atoms.
Which of these is not a physical property of a mineral?
Every mineral can be any color. It is one property and may not be used alone to identify a mineral. Color isn't a physical property.
What statement describes a chemical property?
The correct option is (d), Reacting with hydrogen to form a gas is an example of a chemical property.
What is the chemical name of minerals?
The chemical formula of the mineral Hematite is Fe2O3. The letters describe the element type (Fe = iron, O = oxygen), and the subscripted numbers describe the amount of those atoms in each molecule. A Hematite molecule has 2 iron (Fe) atoms and 3 oxygen (O) atoms.
Why do minerals have different chemical properties?
Answer and Explanation: Minerals have different properties because they are made out of different elements. Minerals can be made of silicon, carbon, phosphorus, oxygen, iron, calcium, magnesium, and many other native elements. These native elements have different properties based on how many electrons they have.
Is luster a chemical property of a mineral?
Luster is a physical property used by mineralogists to help identify minerals. Luster describes how a mineral's surface reflects light and how the interior of the mineral may refract or bend light. Some minerals have a metallic luster; some have a non-metallic luster.
What is the chemical formula of a mineral?
All minerals have a chemical formula, which is an analysis of the types and amounts of elements present in a mineral . Every element has a one or two letter abbreviated term. For example oxygen is "O", and gold is "Au". (See the periodical table for a list of all the elements).
What is the formula for a mineral series?
For example, the mineral Aurichalcite , which has a chemical formula of (Zn,Cu) 5 (CO 3) 2 (OH) 6 contains an unspecific varying amount of zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu). This is indicated by comma separating the Zn from the Cu.
What happens when water molecules are grouped together?
When water molecules are grouped together, they form a body of water. Trace amounts of foreign molecules not inherent to a mineral's makeup are known as impurities. Impurities can slightly alter physical properties such as color. Atoms join together based on their positive and negative charges.
What are the two types of molecules that can be separated by physical means?
Molecules form mixtures and compounds. Mixtures are groups of molecules that can be separated by physical means. Compounds are groups of molecules with a definitive arrangement, and can only be separated by chemical means. Every mineral contains a defined ratio of specific molecules in its structure.
Is Fluorite a variable element?
Some minerals without a variable formula may still have variable elements, but those elements are too rare or insignificant to be reckoned. For example, the mineral Fluorite occasionally has contains traces of Ce (cerium) and Y (yttrium), but there is no variable formula since these combinations are too uncommon.
What are the physical properties of minerals?
The physical properties of minerals include name, crystal system, color as it appears to the naked eye, streak by rubbing on streak plate, luster, hardness on the Mohs scale, and average specific gravity. The chemical properties comprise chemical formula and the proportion of elements in the purest form of the minerals.
What are chemical properties?
The chemical properties comprise chemical formula and the proportion of elements in the purest form of the minerals. The information base extends with short description of mode of occurrences, and major uses of the metals and minerals. This has briefly been tabulated in ( Table 1.1) for ready reference.
What are some examples of mineraloids?
It usually occurs by excretion of minerals substances from the edge to the center of fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with basalt, rhyolite, limonite, sandstone and marl.
Is a crystallized mineral anisotropic or isotropic?
They are anisotropi c. Minerals which are part of the cubic system and amorphous solid are isotropic which means that light behaves the same way no matter which direction it is traveling in the crystal. The isotropy and anisotropy of crystallized minerals will be discussed in more detail in Sections 2.2.3 and 2.3.2.
Do crystallized minerals have a constant melting point?
Crystallized minerals have specific and constant physical properties. Same minerals always have a constant melting point or crystallization point. If we increase the temperature of crystallized mineral, when it reaches melting point, it will stop to heat as long as the mineral does not convert to mineral melt.
Isotropism
Minerals are grouped according to their physical properties, which may be direction dependent.
Anisotropic
In a single crystal, the physical and mechanical properties often differ with orientation. It can be seen from looking at our models of crystalline structure that atoms should be able to slip over one another or distort in relation to one another easier in some directions than others.
Isotropic
Alternately, when the properties of a material are the same in all directions, the material is said to be isotropic. For many polycrystalline materials the grain orientations are random before any working (deformation) of the material is done.
Polymorphism
Physical properties of minerals are directly related to their atomic structure, bonding forces and chemical composition. Bonding forces as electrical forces exist between the atoms and ions are related to the type of elements, and the distance between them in the crystalline structure.
I. Cohesion and Elasticity
Cohesion: The force of attraction existing between molecules. It shows resistance to any external influence that tends to separate them, eg., breaking or scratching the surface of a solid mineral. Cohesion force is related to bonding force.
II. Specific Gravity
Specific gravity (SG) or relative density is a unitless number that expresses the ratio between the weight of a substance and the weight of an equal volume of water at 4degree (max ρ).
III. Light
Diapheneity is amount of light transmitted or absorbed by a solid.Diapheneity generally used strictly for hand specimens also most minerals opaque in hand specimens and transparent in thin sections
What are the colors of minerals?
For example, several minerals are green in color – olivine, epidote, and actinolite, just to name a few. On the other extreme, one mineral can take on several different colors if there are impurities in the chemical composition, such as quartz, which can be clear, smoky, pink, purple, or yellow.
Which minerals are amorphous?
Some minerals, like azurite and malachite, which are both copper ores, don't form regular crystals, and are amorphous (Figure 3). Figure 3: Examples of different types of crystal forms. On the left, pyrite has a cubic form; tourmaline (middle) is prismatic; azurite and malachite (on the right) are often amorphous.
What is the luster of a mineral?
The luster of a mineral is the way that it reflects light. This may seem like a difficult distinction to make, but picture the difference between the way light reflects off a glass window and the way it reflects off of a shiny chrome car bumper. A mineral that reflects light the way glass does has a vitreous (or glassy) luster; a mineral that reflects light like chrome has a metallic luster. There are a variety of additional possibilities for luster, including pearly, waxy, and resinous (see pictures in Figure 5). Minerals that are as brilliantly reflective as diamond have an adamantine luster. With a little practice, luster is as easily recognized as color and can be quite distinctive, particularly for minerals that occur in multiple colors like quartz.
What mineral reflects light like chrome?
A mineral that reflects light the way glass does has a vitreous (or glassy) luster ; a mineral that reflects light like chrome has a metallic luster . There are a variety of additional possibilities for luster, including pearly, waxy, and resinous (see pictures in Figure 5).
What are the minerals found on Mars?
Geologists have recently determined that the minerals goethite and hematite exist in abundance on Mars, sure signs of the presence of water (see Figure 1 for a picture). None of those geologists have been to Mars, of course, but the unmanned rovers Spirit and Opportunity have. These rovers are equipped with three mass spectrometers, each of which is capable of determining the chemical composition of a solid with a high degree of accuracy. With such a precise chemical analysis in hand, geologists on Earth had no problem identifying the minerals.
What are some examples of minerals that are green?
For example, several minerals are green in color – olivine, epidote, and actinolite, just to name a few. On the other extreme, one mineral can take on several different colors if there are impurities in the chemical composition, such as quartz, which can be clear, smoky, pink, purple, or yellow.
How many minerals are there in the Earth's crust?
Although there are many thousands of named minerals, only a dozen or so are common in Earth's crust. Testing a few physical properties therefore means that you can identify about 90% of what you are likely to encounter in the field.
