Lab Midterm Exam
Minerals (pg 85)
Name
Calcite
Chlorite
Potassium
Feldspar
Picture
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Information
Hardness: 3
Cleavage: Rhombohedral
Lustre: Vitreous to dull
Colour: colourless, pink, white, blue
Carbonate
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Hardness: 2
Cleavage: 1 perfect
Lustre: Pearly to viterous
Silicate (Hydrous Mg-Fe-Al)
Colour: Dark green
Streak: white to pale green
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Scratches by fingernail (softer than a
knife)
Green-Black
Taste like pool
1 perfect cleavage
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Hardness: 6
Cleavage: 2 @ 90 degree
Lustre: Viterous
Colour: pink to white
Silicate
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Pink or white
Squareish
2 @ 90 degree cleavage
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Identifying Features
Fizzes when placed in HCl
White, clear, glassy
Rhombohedral cleavage
1
Plagioclase
Feldspar
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Hardness: 6
Cleavage: 2 near 90 degree
Lustre: vitreous
Colour: white, grey, greenish, pinkish
Silicate
Sodium base – light colour
Calcium rich – dark colour
 Has corners
 Striations (lines running one end to
another)
Amphibole
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Hardness: 6
Cleavage: 56 and 124 degree
Lustre: vitreous to dull
Colour: black to greenish black
Streak: white to greenish grey
Silicate
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Rhombus like
Black
Look at the cleavage planes
Pyroxene
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Hardness: 6
Cleavage: 2 @ 87 degrees
Lustre: Vitreous to dull
Colour: Dark green to black
Silicates
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Dull
Mostly green with golden sparkles
2
Olivine
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Hardness: 6.5
Cleavage: none
Lustre: vitreous
Colour: olive to yellow green
Texture: Rough sugary texture
Silicate
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Light weight
Yellow olive colour
Powdery, sugar
Garnet
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Hardness: 7-7.5
Cleavage: none
Lustre: vitreous
Colour: dark red, red
Streak: white, yellow
12 sided crystals inside the rock
Silicate
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Redish Brown
Large crystals embedded in the rock
Looks like the philosophers stone and you
have to guard it
Quartz
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Hardness: 7
Cleavage: none
Lustre: Vitreous
Colour: colourless, milky, rose, black
Silicate
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No streak
Scratches glass
Bumpy
Any colour
Semi Transparent
Hexagonal
Magnetite
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Hardness: 5.5-6.5
Cleavage: none
Lustre: metallic
Colour: black shiny
Streak: black
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Magnetic
Metallic black
3
Pyrite
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Hardness: 6
Cleavage: poor
Lustre: Metallic yellow lustre
Colour: opaque yellow (shiny)
Streak: black
Non-silicate
Sulfide
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Looks like gold tin foil
Shiny, metallic yellow
Galena
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Hardness: 2.5
Lustre: metallic grey
Cleavage: perfect parallel cubed faces
Colour: opaque, grey
Streak: dark grey
Non-silicate sulfide
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No scratch
Looks like magnet
Dense, heavy but soft
Cube Corners
Metallic grey
Softer than a knife
4
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Chalcopyrite
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Hardness: 4
Cleavage: poor
Lustre: Metallic brassy yellow
Colour: dark or brassy yellow,
greenish
Streak: greenish black
Non-silicate sulfide
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Streaks
Looks like gold
SOFT
Not as shiny as pyrite
Dull
Biotite Mica
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Hardness: 2.5
Cleavage: Basal
Lustre: pearly
Colour: black/dark brown
Silicate
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Paper thin
B is for black
Biotite is for black
Muscovite Mica
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Hardness: 2.5 - 3
Cleavage: Basal
Lustre: pearly
Colour: colourless to pale shades
Silicate
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White
Transparent
5
Igneous Rocks (pg 97)
Name
Pink Granite
Gabbro
Amygdaloidal
Basalt
Picture
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Mafic/
Felsic
Felsic
Phaneritic
Coarse
Grain
Formation
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Mafic
Phaneritic
Coarse
Grain
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Mafic
Apanitic
Fine-grained
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Igneous
Intrusive
Below surface
Main minerals
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Identifying Features
Potassium
Feldspar,
Quartz,
Plagioclase
Feldspar,
Biotite,
Amphilbole
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Determined by pink
colour of majority of the
rock
Mixture of colours and
textures
No individual pieces
protruding
Igneous
intrusive
Forms below
the surface
within the
Earth
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Plagioclase
feldspar,
pyroxene, a
little olivine
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Heavy
Green tinge
Non-pure
Bigger crystals than
Basalt
Igneous
extrusive
Forms above
the surface
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Crystals
(mostly quartz,
grow in
vesicles after
rock is formed)
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White (carbon dioxide)
Spots
6
Basalt
Andesite
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Mafic
Aphanitic
Fine-grained
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Intermediate
Aphanitic
Fine-grained
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Igneous
extrusive
Forms above
surface, on top
of earth
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Plagioclase
feldspar,
pyroxene,
olivine
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Uniform Black
Igneous
intrusive
Forms below
the surface
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Plagioclase,
pyroxene,
amphibole
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Corners
Random Black glass
embedded in rock
7
Grandiorite
Granite
Prophyry
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Intermediate
Phaneritic
Darker than
white
granite
Felsic
Porphyritic
Coarse
Grain
(different
sized grains)
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Igneous
extrusive
Forms above
the surface
Formed by two
different rates
of cooling (eg.
started cooling
below the
surface then
rose and
finished
cooling above
the surface)
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Potassium
feldspar,
quartz,
plagioclase
feldspar,
biotite,
amphibole
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Potassium
feldspar,
quartz,
plagioclase
amphibole,
biotite
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Smaller grain than
granite
Less random than
granite
Halfway between
granite and Andesite
Looks like cookies and
cream
Large crystals
Large minerals are
called phenocrysts
Small minerals are
called groundmass/matrix
Looks like cookies and
cream with pink crystals
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8
White Granite
Rhyolite
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Felsic
Phaneritic
Coarse
grained
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Felsic
Aphanitic
Fine-grained
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Igneous
intrusive
Formed below
the surface
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Igneous
Extrusive
Formed above
surface
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Quartz,
plagioclase,
amphibole,
biotite
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Potassium
feldspar,
quartz,
plagioclase
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Granite is determined
by colour and spotted
look
You can see the quartz
cleavage planes
Corners
Sand colour
Smooth
Light weight
9
Syenite
Pumice
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Felsic
Phaneritic
Coarsegrained
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Felsic
Vesicular
Fine-grained
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Igneous
intrusive
Formed below
surface
Formed from
magma cooling
so quickly that
gas cannot
escape and
forms air
bubbles within
the rock
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Potassium
feldspar,
plagioclase,
biotite,
amphibole (no
quartz)
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Reddish
Brown
No layers unlike Gneiss
Smoother texture than
granite
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Light grey
Mostly air
10
Metamorphic Rocks
Name
Slate
Picture
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Information
Has slaty foliations
Parallel cleavage
Composed of Dark
flaky, prismatic
silicates
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Formation
Formed from shale
Formed from
regional
metamorphism,
intense pressure and
heat
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Identifying Features
Black board
Greenish to black
Smooth(very fine-grained),
soft
Biotite Schist
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Schistose foliations
Does not fracture
Shiny look
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Formed from slate
Regional
metamorphism,
intense pressure and
heat
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Many crystal sides
Gold black sheen
Smooth (coarse-grained)
GarnetChlorite
Biotite Shist
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Schistose foliations
Contains garnet and
chlorite
Dark and sparkly
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Formed from slate
Regional
metamorphism,
intense pressure and
heat
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Cube crystals embedded
(biotite schist pieces
throughout)
Black
Gold sheen
Chlorite has green
Moderately smooth(fine
grained)
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11
Quartz-Garnet
Muscovite
Schist
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Schistose Foliation
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Chlorite Schist
Marble
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Schistose foliations
Looks like chlorite
but it is a rock not a
mineral
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Non-foliated
Crystal-like look
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Formed by regional
metamorphism
(intense pressure and
heat)
Slate morphs into this
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Silver sheen
White rock, black crystals
No cleavage
Smooth (fine grain)
Garnet pieces throughout
Regional
metamorphism
(intense pressure and
heat)
Main mineral is
chlorite
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Green colour
No cleavage unlike chloride
Less uniform than mineral
Moderately rough (moderately
coarse grained)
Soft
Regional
metamorphism
(intense pressure
and heat)
Formed from
Limestone/dolomite
Main mineral is
calcite/dolomite
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White
Makes statues
Soft
Knife scratches it
DOES NOT scratch glass
Moderately rough (coarse
grained)
12
Quartzite
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Non-foliated
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Composed of quartz
Metamorphosed
sandstone
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QuartzoFeldspathic
Gneiss
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Gneissic foliations
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Amphibolite
Gneiss
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Gneissic foliations
Crystal-like grains
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Regional
metamorphism(intens
e pressure and heat)
Contains potassium
feldspar and quartz
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Regional
metamorphism
(intense pressure and
heat)
Contains amphibole
and garnet
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White veins
No folds
Scratches glass
Moderately tough
(moderately coarse grain)
Weird ugly colour
Banded, varying colours
Layers sometimes with folds
(mostly black layers)
Quartz veins
Shiney
Moderately rough ( coarse
grain)
Black
Sparkling
No garnets
Many little crystals
Moderately coarse grain
13
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Granite Gneiss
Gneissic foliations
Dull
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Regional
metamorphism
(intense pressure and
heat)
Contains quartz,
potassium feldspar,
quartz
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Not layered like QuartzoFeldspathic and has more
white/pink than black
Moderately rough (coarse
grain)
Sedimentary (pg 110)
Name
Quartz Sandstone
Picture
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Information
Clastic
Made up mostly of
quartz
Medium velocity
transport (eg. slow
stream or at a shore)
Formed from finegrained sediment
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Texture
Sand sized
particles
Well-sorted
Moderately
rough
(moderately
coarse)
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Identifying Features
Sand coloured
Smooth
Uniform
Can show bedding
14
Graywacke
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Shale
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Conglomerate
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Clastic
Composed of quartz,
potassium feldspar
clay
Medium velocity
energy source (slow
stream or a shore)
Formed from coarse
grain sediment
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Clastic
Type of mudstone
Mainly made of
mineral clay
Low velocity transport
(eg. calm lake)
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Clastic
High Velocity
transport (eg. fast
stream or river)
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Sand-sized
particles
Poorly sorted
Rough (coarse
grain)
Small grain
size
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Non Uniform
Not smooth
Clay sized
particles
Smooth (fine
grained)
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Not Perfectly
uniform
Thin layers
Not smooth
Pebble/boulder
sized particles
Rough (coarse
grain)
Large pieces of
conglomerate
throughout
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Mixes of all random
rock
Pebbles stuck
together
15
Fossiliferous
Limestone
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Chert
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Rock Salt
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Chemical
Made of organic
material
Forms on ocean floor
Compacted oil like
material
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Smooth (finegrained)
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Black
Solid
Looks like oil
Fossils are present
Chemical (usually
bioclastic)
Main mineral is
quartz
Formed from
radiolaria shells
Chert can often be
bioclastic
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Very hard (
smooth, fine
grained)
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Looks like plastic
Chemical composed of
soft mineral halit
Crystal-like look
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Soft
Smooth (finegrained)
 Taste like salt
 Looks like salt
To tell apart from quartz:
- Quartz is hard
- Rock salt is soft
and you can feel
the knife dig into
it
16
Potash
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Gypsum
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Chemical
Mainly composed of
mineral sylvite (KCl)
Water soluble
Chemical
Water soluble
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Soft
Very soft,
when you
scratch it, it
makes white
dust
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Soft
Red (with white and
grey throughout)
Makes white chalk
like powder when
you touch it (drywall
dust)
Mainly white
17