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Properties of Minerals Stations

Last updated almost 2 years ago
27 questions
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What forms can minerals be in?

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What does a substance need to be considered a mineral?

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Which tool is commonly used to test the hardness of a mineral?

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What is hardness in terms of minerals?

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Minerals, the building blocks of rocks, possess unique properties that scientists use to identify them. Some of these key properties include luster, hardness, streak, color, and cleavage. These properties can be determined through simple tests. For instance, the Mohs scale test rates a mineral's hardness by its ability to scratch others. While the streak test involves rubbing a mineral against a piece of unglazed porcelain to observe the color of its dust. Through these tests, scientists are not only able to identify minerals but also discover more about our Earth's crust.
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What is the hardness of a mineral determined by?

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What test uses a porcelain plate to determine the color of a mineral?

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Which property of a mineral reflects the way light interacts with its surface?

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Which of the following is not one of the physical properties of minerals?

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You will examine 5 of the properties of minerals: cleavage/fracture, streak, color, luster, and hardness. Density is also a property that we have examined.

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What are the colors of the minerals streak?

List the colors you see of each mineral
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Quartz (colorless)

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Milky Quartz

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Smoky quartz

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Amethyst

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Citrine

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Rose Quartz

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What do you notice about the different ways minerals can break? Note your observations.

Mohs Hardness Scale is a significant tool in geology that measures a mineral's hardness or resistance to being scratched. It's a scale from 1 to 10. Number 1 represents the softest mineral, Talc, while Diamond, the hardest substance found in nature, stands at number 10. On this scale, the mineral can scratch anything below it.
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Can diamond scratch talc?

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Can diamond scratch quartz?

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Can apatite scratch quartz?

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Can quartz scratch topaz?

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Can talc scratch diamond?

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Can corundum scratch gypsum?

Luster is how a mineral reflects light. Generally, a mineral can be classified as metallic or nonmetallic. Metallic refers to a mineral with high reflectivity and high shine. Nonmetallic has low reflectivity and low shine.
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Is gold metallic or nonmetallic?

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What property of minerals is determined by its resistance to being scratched?

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What does luster refer to in the context of mineral properties?

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How is a mineral's cleavage determined?

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What does the property of streak test in minerals?

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