Minerals
1)
Define
“chemical element”. What are the eight
most abundant elements in the Earth’s crust?
2)
The
building blocks of rocks are what?
3)
What
is the four part definition of a mineral.
4)
What
are the mineral names and chemical compositions of the chemical compounds
sodium chloride, silica dioxide, and calcium carbonate.
5)
What
are silicate minerals?
6)
What
is cubic, rhombohedron, hexagonal, and sheet silicate crystal forms?
7)
What
elements are in K-feldspar and plagioclase feldspar (you do not need to know
the exact chemical formula).
8)
Plagioclase
is a “solid solution”, briefly discuss what that means using plagioclase as an
example.
9)
How
do amorphous and crystalline materials differ?
Is volcanic glass crystalline?
10)
Cleavage
is characterized by three properties, what are they?
11)
How
do cleavage and fracture differ? What
is conchoidal fracture?
12)
On
Mohs hardness scale, what is the hardness of your fingernail, a knife blade,
and quartz.
13)
Your
teeth and bones are made of what mineral?
14)
What
are the two primary types of luster?
15)
Define
specific gravity.
16)
Graphite
and diamond are both composed of Carbon (C).
What is the crystallographic name for two minerals composed of the same
chemical formula?
17)
Why
is graphite sheet-like and soft whereas diamond is so hard?