Field identification of Minerals

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). 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.

Figure 1: The small spheres in this picture were dubbed

“berries” by geologists who first saw them. They sit on the
surface of Mars and were photographed by the Mars
rover Opportunity. A mass spectrometer on the rover was
able to determine the chemical content of the berries and
geologists recognized the chemical formula for hematite
(Fe2O3).

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.

Identifying minerals by physical properties

The most common minerals in Earth's crust can often be identified in the field using basic
physical properties such as color, shape, and hardness. The context of a mineral is important,
too – some minerals can form under the same conditions, so you are likely to find them in the
same rock, while others form under very different conditions and will never occur in the same
rock. For this reason, context (the other surrounding minerals and type of rock) can often be
used to rule out minerals that have similar color, for example. 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.
Because the physical properties of a mineral are determined by its chemical composition and
internal atomic structure, they can be used diagnostically, the way a runny nose and sore throat
can be used to diagnose a cold. There are many physical properties of minerals that are testable
with varying degrees of ease, including color, crystal form (or shape), hardness, luster (or
shine), density, and cleavage or fracture (how the mineral breaks). In addition, many minerals
have unique properties, such as radioactivity, fluorescence under black light,
or reaction to acid. In most cases, it is necessary to observe a few properties to identify a
mineral; to extend the medical analogy even further, a runny nose is a symptom of a cold virus,
allergies, or a sinus infection among other things, so we have to use other symptoms to diagnose
the problem – a headache, fever, watery eyes, and so on.

Color

The most obvious property of a mineral, its color, is unfortunately also the least diagnostic. In
the same way that a headache is a symptom for a whole host of problems from the flu to a head
injury, many minerals share the same color. 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.
Part of the reason that the color of minerals is not uniquely diagnostic is that there are several
components of the crystal compositions and structure that can produce color. The presence of
some elements, such as iron, always results in a colored mineral, but iron can produce a wide
variety of colors depending on its state of oxidation – black, red, or green, most commonly.
Some minerals have color-producing elements in their crystal structure, like olivine (Fe2SiO4),
while others incorporate them as impurities, like quartz (SiO2). All of this variability makes it
difficult to solely use color to identify a mineral. However, in combination with other properties
such as crystal form, color can help narrow the possibilities. As an example, hornblende,
biotite, and muscovite are all very commonly found in rocks such as granite. Hornblende and
biotite are both black, but they can be easily distinguished by their crystal form because biotite
occurs in sheets, while hornblende forms stout prisms (Figure 2). Muscovite and biotite both
form in sheets, but they are different colors – muscovite is colorless, in fact.

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.

Crystal form

The external shape of a mineral crystal (or its crystal form) is determined largely by its internal
atomic structure, which means that this property can be highly diagnostic. Specifically, the
form of a crystal is defined by the angular relationships between crystal faces (read
Steno's Law of Interfacial Angles ). Some minerals, like halite (NaCl, or salt) and pyrite (FeS)
have a cubic form (see Figure 3, left); others like tourmaline (see Figure 3, middle) are
prismatic. 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.

Unfortunately, we don't always get to see the crystal form. We see perfect crystals only when
they have had a chance to grow into a cavity, such as in a geode. When crystals grow in the
context of cooling magma, however, they are competing for space with all of the other crystals
that are trying to grow and they tend to fill in whatever space they can. The shape of the crystal
can vary quite a bit depending on the amount of space available, but the angle between the
crystal faces will always be the same.
Hardness

The hardness of a mineral can be tested in several

ways. Most commonly, minerals are compared to an
object of known hardness using a scratch test – if a nail,
for example, can scratch a crystal, than the nail is
harder than that mineral. In the early 1800s, Friedrich
Mohs, an Austrian mineralogist, developed a relative
hardness scale based on the scratch test. He assigned
integer numbers to each mineral, where 1 is the softest
and 10 is the hardest. This scale is shown in Figure 4.
The scale is not linear (corundum is actually 4 times as
hard as quartz), and other methods have now provided
more rigorous measurements of hardness. Despite the
lack of precision in the Mohs scale, it remains useful
because it is simple, easy to remember, and easy to test.
The steel of a pocketknife (a common tool for
geologists to carry in the field) falls almost right in the
middle, so it is easy to distinguish the upper half from
the lower half. For example, quartz and calcite can
look exactly the same – both are colorless and
translucent, and occur in a wide variety of rocks. But a
simple scratch test can tell them apart; calcite will be
scratched by a pocketknife or rock hammer and quartz Figure 4: Mohs' scale of mineral
hardness, where 1 is the softest and 10
will not. Gypsum can also look a lot like calcite, but is is the hardest
so soft that it can be scratched by a fingernail.
Variations in hardness make minerals useful for different purposes. The softness of calcite
makes it a popular material for sculpture (marble is made up entirely of calcite), whereas the
hardness of diamond means that it is used as an abrasive to polish rock.

Luster

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 have a vitreous (or glassy) luster; a mineral that
Figure 5: Examples of only a few of the
reflects light like chrome has a metallic luster. There different lusters that can be seen in minerals.
Galena (left) has a metallic luster, amber
are a variety of additional possibilities for luster, (middle) is resinous, and quartz (right) is
including pearly, waxy, and resinous (see pictures in glassy.

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.

Density

The density of minerals varies widely from about 1.01 g/cm3 to about 17.5 g/cm3. The density
of water is 1 g/cm3, pure iron has a density of 7.6 g/cm3, pure gold, 17.65 g/cm3. Minerals,
therefore, occupy the range of densities between water and pure gold. Measuring the density
of a specific mineral requires time-consuming techniques, and most geologists have developed
a more intuitive sense for what is "normal" density, what is unusually heavy for its size, and
what is unusually light. By "hefting" a rock, experienced geologists can usually guess if the
rock is made up of minerals that contain iron or lead, for example, because it feels heavier than
an average rock of the same size.

Cleavage and fracture

Most minerals contain inherent weaknesses within their atomic structures, a plane along which
the bond strength is lower than the surrounding bonds. When hit with a hammer or otherwise
broken, a mineral will tend to break along that plane of pre-existing weakness. This type of
breakage is called cleavage, and the quality of the cleavage varies with the strength of the
bonds. Biotite, for example, has layers of extremely weak hydrogen bonds that break very
easily, thus biotite breaks along flat planes and is considered to have perfect cleavage (see
Figure 6). Other minerals cleave along planar surfaces of varying roughness – these are
considered to have good to poor cleavage.

Figure 6: Several conchoidal fractures

are visible in the mineral samples
above. Note the concave surface and
the curved ribs.

Some minerals don't have any planes of weakness in their atomic structure. These minerals
don't have any cleavage, and instead they fracture. Quartz fractures in a distinctive fashion,
called conchoidal, which produces a concave surface with a series of arcuate ribs similar to the
way that glass fractures (see Figure 6). For quartz, in fact, this lack of cleavage is a
distinguishing property.

Summary

Minerals are classified on the basis of their chemical composition, which is expressed in their
physical properties. The physical properties that are commonly used to identify minerals
include color, crystal form, hardness, density, luster, and cleavage.

Source: www.visionlearning.com/en/library/Earth-Science/6/Properties-of-Minerals