- To be a mineral, a substance must satisfy five criteria. List these criteria below.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
- Circle the substances below that are minerals.
gold nugget vitamin pill quartz diamond brick
granite amber calcite ice oil ivory
- For each substance in question 2 that you did not circle, explain specifically why it is not a mineral.
- Fill in the blanks with the appropriate mineral property. Each property is used once. Properties: luster, hardness, cleavage, fracture, tenacity, color, streak.
a. Mica has a low ___ because is flexible and not very resistant to bending.
b. The resistance of a mineral to scratching is known as the mineral’s ___.
c. The least reliable property when trying to identify a mineral is ___.
d. ___ is the way a mineral reflects light and can be either metallic or non-metallic.
e. A mineral that breaks in a random patter is said to exhibit ___.
f. Though a crystal of amethyst is purple, it appears white in powdered from. Thus we say that amethyst has a white ___.
g. A mineral exhibits ___ when it breaks along a finite number of smooth planes determined by zones of weakness in the crystal structure.
- For each of the minerals below, indicate whether they are ferromagnesian silicates, non-ferrogmagnesian silicates, carbonates, or other.
a. Fluorite CaF2
b. Siderite FeCO3
c. Kyanite Al2SiO5
d. Garnet (Pyrope variety) Mg3Al2(SiO4)3
e. Graphite C
Sample Solution
