What Is A Solid Formed In Nature With A Definite Chemical Makeup And A Crystal Structure

"Mineral" redirects here. For the town in the US state of Virginia, see Mineral, Virginia.

Minerals are substances that are formed naturally in the World. Rocks are made of minerals.

Minerals are usually solid, inorganic, take a crystal construction, and form naturally by geological processes.^[ane]

The written report of minerals is called mineralogy.^[2]

A mineral can be fabricated of single chemic chemical element or more usually a compound. There are over 4,000 types of known minerals.^[3] Ii mutual minerals are quartz and feldspar.

Characteristics of minerals [change | alter source]

Labradorite feldspar displaying typical labradorescence

A mineral is a substance that normally

• is an inorganic solid. (elemental mercury is an exception)^{[3] p184 [iv]}
• Has a definite chemical make-up
• usually has a crystal construction; some do non
• is formed naturally past geological processes

Ane recent definition is:

"A mineral is a homogeneous (which ways composed of parts or elements that are all of the same kind) naturally occurring substance with a definite but not necessarily fixed chemical composition. Most minerals are solids with an ordered atomic arrangement, and nigh are inorganic in the chemical sense of that word".^[1]

Alternatively, a mineral is ane listed every bit such by the International Mineralogical Association.^[3]

Minerals and rocks [change | modify source]

Minerals are dissimilar from rocks. A mineral is a chemical compound with a given composition and a divers crystal structure.^[5] A stone is a mixture of one or several minerals, in varying proportions.

A stone has only 2 of the characteristics minerals have–it is a solid and it forms naturally. A rock normally contains two or more than types of minerals. Ii samples of the same blazon of rock may have different kinds of minerals in them. Minerals are always fabricated up of the same materials in nearly the same proportions. A cerise is a mineral. Therefore, a cerise found in India has similar makeup equally a ruby constitute in Australia.

Formed in nature [change | change source]

Minerals are formed past natural processes. A few substances with the aforementioned chemical composition every bit minerals can be produced past living creatures as part of their shells or bones. The shells of molluscs are composed of either calcite or aragonite, or both.

Traditionally, chemicals produced past living things are not considered minerals. All the same, it is difficult to run into why an organic substance should non be chosen a mineral if its chemical nature and its crystalline structure is identical with its inorganic twin. This issue is at present nether debate: see Railsback part II.^[1]

Esquel slice. It is a stony-iron meteorite, blazon pallasite

Minerals class in many ways. The mineral halite, which is used as table common salt, forms when h2o evaporates in a hot, shallow part of the ocean, leaving behind the salt information technology contained. Many types of minerals are made when molten stone, or magma cools and turns into a solid. Talc, a mineral that can be used to make baby pulverisation, forms deep in Globe as high pressure and temperature causes changes in solid rock.

The boggling thing is, that most minerals owe their formation to life, or at least to the Bully Oxygenation Event. "Sturdy minerals rather than fragile organic remains may provide the most robust and lasting signs of biological science".^{[6] [seven]}

Solid [change | change source]

A mineral is a solid—that is, it has a definite volume and a rough shape. Book refers to the amount of space an object takes upward. For case, a golf brawl has a smaller volume than a baseball, and a baseball has a smaller book than a basketball.

A substance that is a liquid or a gas is not a mineral. However, in some cases its solid form is a mineral. For case, liquid water is not a mineral, but ice is.

Definite chemical makeup [change | alter source]

Each mineral has a definite chemical makeup: it consists of a specific combination of atoms of sure elements. An chemical element is a substance that contains only 1 blazon of atom.

Scientists can classify minerals into groups on the basis of their chemical makeup. Though at that place are thousands of unlike minerals, but well-nigh thirty are common in Earth'southward crust. These 30 minerals make up almost rocks in the chaff. For that reason, they are chosen rock-forming minerals.

• Silicates are most common group. All the minerals in this group contain oxygen and silicon—the 2 most mutual elements in Globe's crust—joined together. Silicates may include other elements such as aluminium, magnesium, iron and calcium. Quartz, feldspar, and mica are common silicates.
• Carbonates are the second well-nigh common group of rock-forming minerals is the carbonates. All the minerals in this group contain carbon and oxygen joined together. Calcite, which is common in seashells, is a carbonate mineral.
• Oxides include the minerals from which most metals, such as tin can and copper, are refined. An oxide consists of an element, usually a metal, joined to oxygen. This grouping includes haematite, a source of fe.

• Sulphates contain the sulphate group SO₄. Sulphates normally class in evaporites where highly salty waters slowly evaporate, allowing sulfates and halides to precipitate where the water evaporates. Sulphates also occur where hot waters are forced through the rock, equally with geysers.

There are many other mineral groups.

Some uses of minerals [alter | change source]

People use minerals for many everyday purposes. Every fourth dimension people plough on a microwave oven or a Television, minerals are being used. The copper in the wires that carry electricity to the auto is made from a mineral. Tabular array common salt or halite, is another mineral that people use in their everyday life.

• Graphite is used to make pencils
• Rock salt is used in cooking
• Mineral ores are the source of metals.

[change | change source]

• Listing of minerals

References [alter | change source]

1. ↑ ^{ane.0 1.one 1.2} 50.B. Railsback Definitions [one] Archived 2013-03-02 at the Wayback Machine and [ii] Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine
2. ↑ Dana J.D. Hurlbut C.Due south. & Klein C. 1985. Transmission of mineralogy. 20th ed, Wiley.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} International Mineralogical Association IMA/CNMNC List of Mineral Names Archived 2012-09-xi at WebCite (PDF 1.8 MB;)
4. ↑ Minsocam
5. ↑ Levin H. 2006. The Earth through time. 8th ed, Wiley. p48: Minerals and their backdrop.
6. ↑ Hazen, Robert Thou. Evolution of minerals: looking at the mineral kingdom through the lens of deep time leads to a startling conclusion: about mineral species owe their existence to life. Scientific American, March 2010.
7. ↑ Rosing, Minik T. 2008. On the development of minerals. Nature 456 p457.

Other websites [change | change source]

• Media related to Minerals at Wikimedia Commons
• Some common minerals and their uses Archived 2008-12-eighteen at the Wayback Auto
• Stone common salt Archived 2004-12-x at the Wayback Machine

Source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral

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