what are the physical and chemical properties of minerals

Key Concepts

• Properties that help geologists identify a mineral in a rock are: color, hardness, luster, crystal forms, density, and cleavage.
• Crystal form, cleavage, and hardness are determined primarily by the crystal structure at the atomic level.
• Color and density are determined primarily by the chemical composition.
• Minerals are classified on the basis of their chemical composition.

Full Answer

What are the physical properties of a mineral?

Most minerals can be characterized and classified by their unique physical properties: hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, and tenacity.

What are the two types of chemical properties of minerals?

Minerals are divided into two types namely metallic and non-metallic.Metallic Minerals. Metallic minerals exhibit lustre in their appearance and consist of metals in their chemical composition. ... Non-metallic minerals. Non-metallic minerals are minerals which either show a non-metallic lustre or shine in their appearance.

What are the 5 physical properties of minerals?

Physical properties of minerals such as luster, cleavage, color, streak, hardness, fracture, transparency, magnetism, and tenacity. Physical properties of minerals such as luster, cleavage, color, streak, hardness, fracture, transparency, magnetism, and tenacity.

Why do minerals have different physical and 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 chemical properties of minerals?

These include physical and chemical properties such as hardness, density, cleavage and colour, crystallography, electrical conductivity, magnetism, radioactivity and fluorescence.Colour. ... Lustre. ... Hardness. ... Cleavage. ... Density and Specific Gravity. ... Streak. ... Transparency. ... Crystal form.More items...

What are the 3 chemical properties of minerals?

Crystal form, cleavage, and hardness are determined primarily by the crystal structure at the atomic level. Color and density are determined primarily by the chemical composition.

What are the physical and chemical properties of minerals Class 8?

Some of the properties of minerals are as follows: color, streak, hardness, luster, diaphaneity, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, magnetism, solubility, and many more.

What are the 12 properties of minerals?

We will first discuss each of the physical properties that can be used, then develop a methodical approach to the identification of minerals using these physical properties. Among the properties we will discuss are: crystal habit, cleavage, hardness, density, luster, streak, color, tenacity, magnetism, and taste.

What's the difference between a physical and a chemical property?

A physical property is a characteristic of a substance that can be observed or measured without changing the identity of the substance. Physical properties include color, density, hardness, and melting and boiling points. A chemical property describes the ability of a substance to undergo a specific chemical change.

What is the difference between physical and chemical properties of metals?

Chemical properties are properties that can be observed or measured when a substance undergoes a chemical change. Physical properties are properties that can be observed without bringing a chemical change.

What is the difference between a chemical and a mineral?

Minerals are made up of chemical elements. A chemical element is a substance that is made up of only one kind of atom. Have you heard of oxygen, hydrogen, iron, aluminium, gold and copper? These are all chemical elements.

How are physical and chemical properties used to identify common rock forming minerals?

Minerals can be identified based on their physical and chemical properties. Useful physical properties to identify a mineral include color, streak, luster, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, tenacity, and crystal habit. The chemical properties of minerals depend on their chemical formula and crystal structure.

What are the 2 properties of chemical property?

Chemical properties describe the characteristic ability of a substance to react to form new substances; they include its flammability and susceptibility to corrosion.

What are 2 chemical properties?

Examples of chemical properties include flammability, toxicity, acidity, reactivity (many types), and heat of combustion.

What are 2 chemical properties of metals?

Let us start with the chemical properties of metals. The density of metals is usually high. Metals are malleable and ductile. Metals form an alloy with other metals or non – metals.

What are the two major properties chemical properties?

Extensive properties vary with the amount of the substance and include mass, weight, and volume. Intensive properties, in contrast, do not depend on the amount of the substance; they include color, melting point, boiling point, electrical conductivity, and physical state at a given temperature.

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 is the fundamental physical property of rocks and minerals?

While the fundamental physical property of rocks and minerals is conductivity (which may be expressed as equivalent resistivity), our laboratory equipment is designed to measure circuit resistance. Resistivity ρ and resistance R for a regular prism are related by

Why is geophysics important in exploration?

Exploration geophysics is efficient in large area reconnaissance/prospecting for rapid delineation of targets. It is comprehensive when using multidisciplinary methods to identify complex mineral environments. The application of geophysics is cost effective in reducing the vast volume of earth and to decide to initiate drilling or to abandon the area. The techniques are time tested and proven for the discovery of deep-seated mineral deposits all over the world.

Why do crystallized minerals have a constant melting 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. It is because that all the heat energy is spent on the decomposition of the crystal lattice, or melting of minerals. It is called melting point or crystallization point in reverse process.

Why is it important to control the chemical environment of a sample?

When measurements are made at high temperature to predict the behavior in the deep Earth and to establish an activation energy for the conducting species , care must be taken to control the chemical environment of the sample so that it is not altered during measurement and that the conditions are applicable to the natural environment of the sample. The most obvious problem is oxidation during heating; even laboratory-grade inert gases have enough contaminant oxygen to place some minerals outside their stability fields.

What is the constancy of chemical composition and physical properties of minerals?

The constancy of chemical composition and physical properties of minerals are the outcome of their internal crystal structure. The exact and unique arrangement of atoms, ions or ionic groups is the characteristic feature of each crystallized mineral. The minerals are mostly found as crystallized substance and less frequently as amorphous solid in Earth's crust ( Fig. 3.2 ).

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 the physical properties of minerals?

Minerals are the building blocks of rocks, and therefore are the building blocks of our planet's structure. They are specifically defined as naturally occurring, crystalline (as used in mineralogy, this means that they have an ordered internal structure) solids that are made inorganically, not by biological methods. For example, the bismuth shown below is not a mineral, because it does not naturally occur in this form; this crystal was created in a laboratory.

What is the hardness of a mineral?

Mineral Hardness. Hardness is a mineral’s resistance to scratching, and shows the strength of a mineral’s atomic bonds. For example, take a human fingernail. It has a hardness of 2.5 on the Mohs hardness scale, which is the standard for measuring a mineral’s hardness; 1 is really soft and 10 is extremely hard.

What is luster in minerals?

Luster is a description of how much a mineral reflects light. There are two main kinds of luster: metallic (shiny) and nonmetallic (dull). Luster is also related to atomic structure and bonding within the mineral itself: metallic lusters tend to correspond with ionic bonds and nonmetallic lusters with covalent bonds. This makes it a fairly reliable way to identify minerals as it shows some of the chemical characteristics of the mineral. Metallic minerals are usually opaque, but non-metallics can be opaque, translucent, or transparent. Minerals may also be described as glassy (or vitreous), silky, waxy, or resinous, among other things.

How is hardness tested?

In general, hardness is tested by scratching things of known hardness against each other until you find the range it falls into.

What is the tendency for a mineral to break into smooth planes?

Cleavage is the tendency for a mineral to break into smooth planes. This is governed again by the internal structure of the mineral, because breakages occur along weak planes between atoms. It is a very good indicator of a mineral’s identity for this reason.

Which mineral has the most violent reaction?

Calcite will fizz more violently than dolomite, and has more of an immediate reaction, so you can use the acid test to figure out if your mineral is one or the other. Some minerals may also require heat to start this reaction, like magnesite and siderite.

What is the difference between transparent and opaque minerals?

Opaque and metallic minerals tend to come in certain distinctive colors, while translucent and transparent minerals seem to experience color changes from chemical impurities more readily. But even then, color is not the most reliable method of identifying a mineral.

How to identify mineral?

A mineral is defined in part by a specific chemical composition . In theory, therefore, it is always easy to identify a mineral, if you can determine the chemical composition with a mass spectrometer like the Mars rovers. In reality, however, even if you are looking at rocks on Earth, determining the exact chemical composition of a substance involves significant time preparing the sample and sophisticated laboratory equipment (and often significant money). Luckily, it is usually unnecessary to go to such lengths, because there are much easier ways that require little more than a magnifying lens and a penknife.

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 share the same color?

Figure 2: These three minerals can be distinguished using both color and form. Hornblende (left) and biotite (middle) share the same color, but are different forms; muscovite (right) and biotite share form but not color.

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 to determine the hardness of a mineral?

The hardness of a mineral can be determined by attempting to scratch it with a knife.

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.