Transcript what is a mineral?

MINERALS
• A mineral is a naturally
occurring, pure chemical
substance.
• It is usually solid, inorganic
(not from a living thing) and
has a crystal structure.
Soil, Rocks & Minerals
What is a
mineral?
2
© Stephanie Elkowitz
• Minerals are important to life on Earth:
• Minerals make up rocks and the solid Earth on which we live.
• Minerals are a source of nutrients for plants and animals.
• Humans extract minerals from Earth and use them to make many
different materials, such as concrete, plaster, glass and even
jewelry.
Diamond
Soil, Rocks & Minerals
Talc
Halite
3
Galena
© Stephanie Elkowitz
• There are five important characteristics of a mineral:
1. Natural
2. Solid
3. Inorganic
4. Specific chemical structure
5. Crystalline structure
• In order to be considered a mineral, a substance must have
all of these characteristics.
Soil, Rocks & Minerals
4
© Stephanie Elkowitz
1. Minerals are naturally occurring.
• Minerals must be formed by natural,
geologic processes. They cannot be
made by people.
2. Minerals are solid.
• Minerals are solid within Earth’s
normal temperature range.
Diamond
3. Minerals are inorganic.
• Minerals are not made by
organisms. For example, wood is
made by plants and pearls are made
by oysters. For this reason, wood and
pearls are NOT inorganic - they are
organic substances.
Soil, Rocks & Minerals
5
Cubic zirconia
(man-made diamond)
NOT a mineral
© Stephanie Elkowitz
4. Minerals have a specific and fixed chemical makeup.
• Minerals have a definite chemical composition.
• Different minerals have different chemical compositions. The same
minerals have the same chemical composition.
5. Minerals have an orderly crystalline structure.
• Minerals have a crystalline structure. This means that the atoms that
make up a mineral are arranged in a systematic and repeating
pattern. This gives it a crystalline structure.
Soil, Rocks & Minerals
6
© Stephanie Elkowitz