Name: _____________________________________ Period: __________ Date: ________________
Rocks and Minerals Study Guide
Chapter 1: Minerals
1) What 4 characteristics make something a mineral?
2) What is meant by “crystalline structure”?
3) Name and describe the main properties used to identify a mineral (mention how to test
or observe each property):
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
4) What’s the difference between cleavage and fracture?
5) List and explain 2 “special properties” that some minerals have:
6) What two groups are all minerals divided into? Explain what each group is. Which is
the most common?
7) What do carbonates, oxides, sulfides, and native elements have in common?
Chapter 2: Rocks
8) Explain what could happen to turn an igneous rock into sedimentary.
9) How could a sedimentary rock turn into igneous?
10) What’s the difference between erosion and weathering?
11) What two properties are used to classify rocks? Explain what each refers to.
12) What is the difference between mafic and felsic igneous composition? How can you tell
if a rock is mafic or felsic?
13) How do each of the following igneous textures form?
A. Fine
B. Coarse
C. Glassy
D. Porphyritic
14) If you found a light-colored rock that has a very low density. You also notice that,
although its texture is fine-grained, there are holes, or vesicles, throughout the rock.
How would you classify this rock?
15) What are the three basic kinds of sedimentary rocks? What is each made of?
16) Explain stratification:
17) What are the two types of metamorphism?
18) What are the two textures of metamorphic rocks? How does each form?