GEOL MIDTERM 2 Flashcards
The nature of the atomic bonds controls the characteristics of a mineral. True or false?
True.
Diamond and graphite are both made entirely or carbon, so what makes them different?
Their structure is different.
What is a tetrahedra bond?
When one atom is bound with 4 other atoms.
What does polymorph describe?
When 2 minerals have the same composition, but a different structure.
What are the 12 physical properties we can use to determine an exact mineral?
Colour
Streak
Luster
Hardness
Specific Gravity
Crystal Habit
Fracture/cleavage
Feel
Taste
Magnetic properties
Chemical reaction
Fluorescence.
What is an anhedral crystal?
A crystal that’s grown in a tight space with no crystal faces.
What’s a euhedral crystal?
A crystal that’s grown in an open cavity with good crystal faces.
How do ionic bonds form?
By electrostatic attraction between an anion and a cation. Atoms bond because they want to reach a stable state.
What are covalent bonds?
Where atoms share electrons. When orbitals of 2 atoms overlap and have no more than 2 electrons combined. The greater the overlap, the greater the bond.
How are metallic bonds characterized?
Valence electrons are free to move from atom to atom throughout the crystal structure; they’re weakly held together. The metals are soft and malleable.
How many minerals have been found on earth?
Over 4000.
How are minerals classified?
By their dominant anion.
What is the most dominant substance in almost the entire crust and mantle of the earth?
Silicates. They’re the first class of minerals.
What is the second mineral class? What are their characteristics?
Oxides. Metal cations are bonded to oxygen. The most dominant ion is oxygen.
What are banded ion formations?
A type of sedimentary rock that consists of alternating layers of ion oxides and iron-poor chert.
What is the third mineral class? What are their characteristics?
Sulfides. Metal cations bound to a sulfide anion.
What are metal ores?
Naturally occurring rocks/sediments that contain metals/metal compounds in sufficient amounts.
What is the 4th mineral class? What are their characteristics?
Sulfates. They often form by evaporation of seawater.
What is the most abundant halogen in earth’s crust?
Fluorine.
What is a halogen?
Any of the 6 non-metallic elements.
They exhibit similar chemical behaviour and share properties with their compounds.
What are halides?
Compounds that contain a halogen atom and one or more other elements.
They’re the 5th mineral class.
What is the 6th mineral class?
Native metals: Pure metals
What’s the 7th mineral class? What can they do?
Carbonates.
Can bond with cations, generally forming insoluble compounds.
What is the 8th mineral class? What are its characteristics?
Silicate minerals.
Most dominant on earth.
Made of oxygen and silicone.
Also called the silicon-oxygen tetrahedron: 4 oxygen atoms are bonded with a central silicone atom.
What is a covalent bond? Why does it happen?
A chemical bond that involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms.
Atoms bond because they want to obtain a stable electronic configuration.
How many subgroups of silicate minerals are there? How do they vary?
There’s 5.
They vary by how silica tetrahedra share oxygen. (The amount of shared oxygen determines the Si:O ratio.
What are the 5 types of silicate minerals and their characteristics?
- Independent Tetrahedra. Cations link around 2 or 3 tetrahedra, and the silica tetrahedra doesn’t share oxygens.
- Single Chains. A silica tetrahedra links to share 2 oxygens. 2 of the 3 oxygens are bound together to other tetrahedras. Ratio is 1:3
- Double Chains. Silica tetrahedra alternates between sharing 2 and 3 oxygens. 2:7.
- Sheet Silicates. Silica tetrahedra shares 3 oxygens, creating 2D flat sheets. They share oxygens at the base. One direction of perfect cleavage. 4:11.
- Framework Silicates. All 4 oxygens in each silica tetrahedron are shared. 1:2.
What are the 5 ways minerals can form? Explain and give an example.
- Solidifaction from a melt. Crystals grow when the melt cools, and liquid freezes to form a solid. (EX, as lava cools, minerals start to crystallize).
- Precipitation from a solution. Seeds form when a solution becomes saturated. (EX, evaporating water leaves salt behind).
- Solid-state diffusion. Chemical reactions at different temperature and pressure conditions result in new minerals at the expense of the old. Also known as metamorphism; if you change the structure, you change the mineral.
- Biomineralization. (EX, Skeletons of dinosaurs).
- Precipitating directly from a gas. (EX, When volcanic gases are releases, they can cool rapidly and undergo chemical changes which results in solid mineral crystals.
What is a ‘seed’ when talking about the formation of a mineral?
Microscopic crystals grow by bonding ions and molecules in a liquid solution to a pre-existing solid surface.
What is the mineral formation process, starting with a seed?
Atoms migrate to the seed and attach to its outer face. Growth moves the faces outward from the centre. The shape reflects the crystal’s atomic order.
They grow from the centre outwards, and when they touch each other, it deforms the faces.
What are the 3 mineral destruction processes?
- Melting. (Heat breaks the bonds holding atoms together).
- Dissolving. (Solvents break atomic bonds).
- Chemical Reactions with other Minerals. (Reactive minerals break bonds). Metamorphism.
What is the difference between a gemstone and a gem?
A gemstone is a mineral with special value, and a gem is a cut and polished stone that’s created for jewelry.
How deep are diamonds found in the upper mantle?
Around 150 km deep.
Pure carbon is compressed into the diamond structure, and they’re found in kimberlite pipes.
What are rocks?
Naturally occurring solid aggregates of minerals.
What is igneous rock? How does it form? What’s an example?
It’s the melting of rocks in the hot, deep crust and upper mantle.
It forms through crystallization
EX, Granite.
What is a sedimentary rock? How does it form? What’s an example?
It’s the weathering and erosion of rocks exposed at the surface.
It forms through deposition, burial, and lithification.
EX, sandstone.
What’s a metamorphic rock? How does it form? What’s an example?
Changing a sedimentary rock into a different type of rock.
It is rocks under high pressures and temperatures in the deep crust and upper mantle.
It forms through the recrystallization of new minerals in a solid state.
EX, Gniess.
How do extrusive igneous rocks form? Example?
When lava erupts at the surface and cools rapidly. They’re fine-grained/glassy-textured rocks.
EX, Basalt.
How do intrusive igneous rocks form? Example?
When magma intrudes into unmelted rock below the surface and cools slowly. The slow cooking allows large crystals to grow.
They’re coarse-grained rocks.
EX, Granite.
What are the 7 stages of how a sedimentary rock is formed?
- Particles and dissolved substances are created by weathering.
- They’re transported downhill/downstream by erosion.
- They’re deposited as layers or sediment.
- They form parallel layers/bedding.
- Buried sediments are lithified by compaction and cementation.
- Siliciclastic sediments form (made of rock fragments)
- Chemical and biological sediments may be precipitated directly from seawater or by organisms.
(As a sediment grows, it’ll get buried, and the pressure will increase to push the sediment together, forming a sedimentary rock.)
What is uplift?
Bringing rocks up to form mountains.
The environment you’re in doesn’t affect the type of new rock you form. True or false?
False. It dictates the type of new rock that can form.
What is magma?
The melted rock below the ground.
What is lava?
The melted rock that has reached the surface.
Volcanic rock can bring molten rock to the surface.
When does the lava freeze?
At high temperatures; 1,100 to 650 degrees, depending on its composition.
As lava cools, it darkens, which is why basalt is so dark in colour.
Melted rock can cool below or above ground.
What are the 2 subsections of extrusive igneous rock?
- Lava flows (Streams or mounds of cooled melts)
- Pyroclastic debris (Cooled fragments; materials that blasted out of a volcano.)
What is volcanic ash versus volcanic rock?
Volcanic Ash: Fine particles of volcanic glass.
Volcanic Rock: Chunks fragmented by an eruption.
Where does partial melting happen?
In the crust and upper mantle. It cannot occur on the surface because the conditions aren’t good.
What is decompression melting?
A decrease in pressure.
The base of the crust is hot enough to melt the mantle rock, but because of the high pressure, the rocks that would melt are kept solid.
Pressure drops when hot rock is carried at shallower depths to a shallower crustal level. Where are 3 places this can happen?
Mantle plumes (Over time, it’ll travel upwards and break through the crust to create a hot spot volcano)
Beneath rifts (A continental rift is where the lithosphere is stretched and the crust creates a bumpy dip; a rift)
Under mid-ocean ridges (When the plates are spread apart)
What is flux melting/addition of volatiles?
It occurs when volatiles are introduced to the hot mantle. A lithosphere sinks below another lithosphere, bringing the surface material with it, which creates volatiles.
What do volatiles do?
They lower the melting temperature of hot rocks.
Common volatiles have H20 and CO2.
They’re released from the crust and the asthenosphere melts.
What does subduction do?
It carries the water into the mantle and melts the rocks.
A subduction zone is when one lithosphere sinks beneath another.
What does rising magma carry with it and what does it do?
It carries the mantle heat with it, which raises the temperature in nearby crustal rock, which then melts.
Magma rises and pulls at the base of the crust.
What 3 things is magma made of?
Solid (Solidified mineral crystals are carried in the melt)
Liquid (The melt itself is made of mobile ions)
Gases (Driven off extrusive lava, but it remains in the melt of magma)
Rock is made of aggregates of minerals. True or false?
True.
What are the 2 main groups of magma?
Dry Magma (Scarce volatiles)
Wet magma (Up to 15% volatiles)
What are the 5 common gases associated with magma?
- Water vapour
- Carbon dioxide
- Sulfur dioxide
- Nitrogen
- Hydrogen
What are the 4 major magma types and what are their silica percentages?
- Felsic (Feldspar and silica). 66-76% silica
- Intermediate. 52-66% silica
- Mafic (Magma that’s high in iron and magnesium, but low silica). 45-52%
- Ultramafic (Highest in iron and magnesium, but low silica). 38-45%
What is viscosity?
Resistance of magma to flow.