Week One Mineral Lab Geology SCI/245
Axia College
Mineral lab Paper
The four requirements for minerals are that they must be naturally occurring in other words they must appear in nature something that that was formed by the earth and not man made. It must be inorganic which means I must not be formed from an organic substance like a fossil of any other living creature. It must have a specific crystalline structure that is formed from simple salts and complex silicates. And it must have a definite chemical composition which defines the minerals structure. The way that you differentiate between minerals is by the way they react to specific tests like for instance the acid test some minerals will have a bubbling action and other one will have no reaction and by color minerals come in many different shades an colors. The six methods to tell minerals apart are the color test by looking at the mineral it can be classified by its color. Another method is the streak test which is the color of the mineral in its powered form this is the true color of a mineral specimen as it lessens the impurity impact and eliminates the light distortion from the crystal. The luster test refers to the absorption, refection, or refraction of light by the surface of a mineral. The fluorescence test in ultraviolet light, some mineral specimens appear to Florence due to the fluorescent mineral impurities or due to locality. Chemical composition is another method because minerals have a fixed chemical composition it is easy to test mineral with this method. And hardness minerals are identified by their hardness based on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness based on their ability to scratch any mineral with a number lower than theirs and their inability to scratch any mineral with a number higher than theirs. A mineral is naturally occurring crystalline solid with a specific chemical composition and characteristic geometric shape. A rock is mineral partials