•Naturally occurring
•Inorganic
•Solid
•Crystalline structure
•Specific physical and chemical properties
Amethyst
clear Quartz mineral
green Olivine mineral
in igneous basalt rock
Minerals are made up of atoms of elements
There are over 3000+ different types
of minerals on Earth – most minerals are
“silicate” minerals (made up of silicon & oxygen)
Carbonates, Sulfides, and Iron Oxides
2 main ways that new mineral crystals grow:
•Some minerals form when molten rock below a
planet’s surface (magma) or above (lava), cools
and atoms bond together into mineral crystals
•Other minerals form when water that has atoms
of dissolved elements in it, evaporates away -the atoms get very close to each other and bond
together to form solid minerals
•Luster (metallic or non-metallic)
•Hardness (hard or soft)
•Cleavage / Fracture (way the mineral splits)
•Streak (powder color of mineral)
CLEAVAGE
3 crystals of quartz mineral show how the same mineral can have different colors!
Fluorescence is a physical process. For a mineral to fluoresce, ultraviolet
(UV) light (electromagnetic radiation) of one wavelength strikes a fluorescent
mineral and “activates” it, that causes light to come out of that mineral at
another longer wavelength. When those wavelengths reach the “visible
spectrum”, we see the different wavelengths as different BRIGHT colors.
Fluorite Mineral
Electromagnetic Spectrum
video of time decay of
mineral fluorescence