Download Note: Chemical Nomenclature

SCH3U
Note: Minerals
To classify as a mineral, a substance must satisfy the following criteria:
Silicates:
Silicates make up 96% of of the Earth’s minerals.
Silicon-oxygen tetrahedrons can combine in four ways forming 4 classes of
silicates:
1.Isolated Silicate Structure
2.Chain Silicates
SCH3U
3.Sheet silicates
4.Framework Silicates
Mineral Properties
1.Colour
•Many minerals have similar colour;
•A given mineral may have different colours due to impurities
2.Streak
•Scraping a mineral across a porcelain plate leaves a streak with a characteristic
colour.
3.Luster
•The quality and intensity of light that is reflected.
SCH3U
4.Hardness
•A measure of how easily a mineral can be scratched.
•Harder minerals can scratch softer minerals.
•Moh’s hardness scale
5.Cleavage
•The ability to break along preferred flat planes.
•Cleavage is identified by the number of cleavage planes and the angles
between them.
6.Specific Gravity
•The density of a mineral;
•The mass per unit volume - a measure of how tightly packs are the atoms in the
mineral.
7.Special Properties
•Reaction to acid (Calcite fizzes)
•Double refraction - calcite bends light so that a double image is produced (text
p. 88)
•Magnetic
•Fluorescence - glow in presence of UV light
•Salty taste - halite