TOPIC 11

ROCKS & MINERALS

• Minerals are the
ingredients of
rocks.

Or

• Rocks are made

up of minerals.
Minerals
• Defn: naturally occurring, inorganic
elements or compounds with specific
physical and chemical properties.
Mineral Properties
 Used to identify minerals

1. Color
• Least useful property in identifying
minerals.
• Why?
All of these are varieties of quartz!
2. Streak
• The color of a minerals powder.
• “streak test”
3. Luster
• How the minerals surface reflects
light.
• Metallic vs. non- metallic.
4. Hardness
• The ability of a mineral to resist being
scratched.
• “Scratch test”

• If mineral A can scratch mineral B, what

does that tell us about the relative
hardness of each mineral?
Moh’s Hardness Scale
Soft

Hard
5. Fracture/ Cleavage
Fracture Cleavage
• Mineral breaks • The tendency of
unevenly or a Mineral to
irregularly break evenly
along its weakest
plane.
6. Crystal Form
• Some minerals tend to form crystals that
aid in the identification of the mineral.
7. Specific Gravity
• The ratio of the density of the mineral to
the density of water (1 g/cm3)

• If a mineral has a specific gravity of 5

that means it is 5 times as dense as
water.
8. Others
• Acid test – Calcite
• Magnetic – Magnetite
• Taste - Halite
A minerals properties are
due to the internal
arrangement of its atoms.
Silicate Minerals
• Minerals that contain a combination of
silicon and oxygen.

Silicon-oxygen tetrahedron
The basic structural unit of silicate minerals
Rocks
Monomineralic Polymineralic
• 1 Mineral • More than 1 Mineral

 Rocks are classified by

how they are formed!!!
Sedimentary Rocks:
1. Clastics
• Rocks that form when sediments (sand,
silt etc.) are lithified.
Processes
• Compacting and cementing
• Vary due to grain size! (see ref tables p.
7)
2. Non-Clastics
A. Organics (bioclastics)
• Form from living things.

Examples: Coal, limestone

B. Chemical (crystaline)
• Formed from the evaporation or precipitation
of sea water.

Examples: Halite, gypsum

Igneous:
- Form when liquid rock cools and solidifies
Intrusive Extrusive
• Cools below the • Cools at the Earths
earths surface surface (quickly!)
(slowwwwly!)
• Lava
• Magma • “Volcanic”
• “Plutonic”
The longer the rock takes to cool, the
larger the crystals!

• Cools slow …..Large crystals

• Cools fast …….small crystals
• Cools immediately……NO Crystals (glass)
Vesicular- gas pockets
Metamorphic:
• Rocks that are changed due to extreme
heat and/or pressure.
• DO NOT MELT!!! (they recrystalize)

Metamorphic rocks become…

1. Harder
2. More dense
3. Banded or foliated
4. Distorted
Banding
Foliated
Regional Metamorphism
• Occurs when large areas of rock are
changed.
• Usually deep below the surface where
crustal plates collide.

• The Adirondacks!
Contact Metamorphism
• Occurs when liquid rock comes into
contact with other rocks.
Bedrock Of New York State
 Identifying Characteristics of
Rocks
Igneous Sedimentary
• Intergrown crystals • Cemented fragments
• Glassy texture (sediments)
• Fossils
• Organic material

Metamorphic
•Banding
•Foliated
The Rock Cycle
BONUS:
• CLASSIFY this rock as igneous,
sedimentary or metamorphic and
EXPLAIN why you classified it that way.
BONUS:
Name the mineral that has the following
properties:
• Non-metallic
• Can scratch fluorite but cannot scratch
quartz
• Exhibits cleavage
• Contains the elements sodium &
hydrogen