Everything on Earth that is made made contains at least 1 mineral. Toothpaste is made of fluoride which comes from fluorite. Magnets from magnetite. Seems obvious, right? How about sinks and toilets- plagioclase feldspar, lacrosse sticks and baseball bats- bauxite ore, your fancy new iPhone6- don't even get me started!
For something to be considered a mineral it has to be:
Minerals have properties that we can test for such as hardness, streak, luster, color, cleavage, fracture, crystal growth, etc. All physical characteristics are a result of the mineral’s internal arrangement of atoms. Use the prezi to find out how we identify minerals. |
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Sedimentary rocks are formed from...you guessed it...sediments! They sometimes contain fossils and can be layered. We can tell identify sedimentary rocks based on their grain size; that is, the diameter of an individual grain.
These rocks are found:
They form from:
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There are 2 main types of igneous rocks: intrusive and extrusive. The names tell where the rock was formed: intrusive form inside the earth and extrusive form outside the earth. Each have a distinct look. With intrusive rocks, the rock was able to harden and form inside earth so it cooled slowly, these are also known as plutonics. When rocks cool slow, they create large crystals. Examples of intrusive rocks would be granite, diorite, and pegmatite. Extrusive rocks form as they exit the lithosphere as lava so they harden into rock quickly. This gives the rock little time to cool and create crystals. These rocks have a glassy (shiny or reflective) appearance or sometimes show gas pockets, but in all cases, the crystals are very tiny. |
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Metamorphic rocks form from pre-existing sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. They can change form through heat and/or pressure without melting. For example, if you apply heat and pressure to a sedimentary rock like shale, it will become slate. Add a little more heat and pressure and it'll turn into phyllite, and then schist and eventually gneiss. With more extreme heat and pressure, rocks will display a texture called foliation. This is when minerals become aligned. Sometimes, in the case of gneiss, banding occurs. This looks like stripes of light and dark. Both run perpendicular to the stress applied to the rock.
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