Introduction to Minerals
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A mineral is a substance that has the following properties: |
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It is NATURAL |
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It is SOLID |
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It is INORGANIC (A Mineral was never alive.) |
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It has a SPECIFIC CHEMICAL COMPOSITION |
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It has a SPECIFIC ATOMIC ARRANGEMENT |
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If you would like further explanation of this definition...
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All minerals are natural, solid and inorganic, so what produces the variations to form the 1000's of different minerals are variations in chemical composition and atomic structure. If you need to review your basic definitions of chemistry (e.g., atoms, ions, compounds, atomic mass) then...
What ELEMENTS are available to build a mineral in the Earth's crust? Although there are over 100 known elements, only 8 elements are needed to account for 96.6% of the ATOMS in the crust: |
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| Element
Name |
Symbol | %
of Atoms
in Crust |
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| Oxygen | O | 60 | ||
| Silicon | Si | 20 | ||
| Aluminum | Al | 6.3 | ||
| Calcium | Ca | 2.6 | ||
| Magnesium | Mg | 2.5 | ||
| Iron | Fe | 2.3 | ||
| Sodium | Na | 2.1 | ||
| Potassium | K | 0.8 | ||
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Note that oxygen and silicon are far more abundant than any other elements in the crust, and together comprise 80% of its atoms! Since these elements are the building blocks of minerals, it is not surprising that the majority of common minerals contain both silicon and oxygen. A mineral that includes both silicon and oxygen is called a SILICATE |
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Silicon and oxygen are the common constituents to all silicates. Accordingly, to understand the behavior of silicate minerals, we must understand the behavior and interactions and bonding between silicon and oxygen itself. |
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To explore the interactions of Si and O...
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© 2001 Wayne G. Powell;
