Mineral Groups Flashcards
Rock-forming minerals
minerals that make up the most rocks in the crust
Economic minerals
used extensively in manufacturing
Eight most abundant elements in earth’s crust from highest to lowest
Oxygen (O), Silicon (Si), Aluminum (Al), Iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), Sodium (Na), potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg)
Silicates
what kind of group are they?
what are they made of?
most common mineral group
- made of oxygen and silicon
Silicate materials are ___ (easy of use)
refractory (high melt. point and low solubility), hard to extract things from them
non silicates
mineral groups that are less abundant in earth’s crust than silicates
nonsilicates and element concentrations
majority of earth’s elements are found in higher concentrations in nonsilicate minerals, so if you want an element in a mineral, it’s best to extract it from nonsilicate minerals
What is the building block that all silicates have?
silicate anion/silicon-oxygen tetrahedron (SiO4^4-)
chemical formula of:
fayalite
hematite
which is a silicate and non silicate? which would you extract from to get iron?
fayalite: Fe2SiO4 silicate
hematite: Fe2O3 non silicate
hematite (nonsilicate)
How do you identify a silicate mineral given chem. formula
anything with Si (silicon) and oxygen (O) is a silicate mineral
How does cleavage behave in terms of the atoms of silicates
Si&O bonds are so strong, so cleavage happens between them, not across them
How to distinguish btw dif types of feldsbar?
striations on plagioclase feldspar
potassium felspar is salmon-colored
pyroxene group
augite
amphibole group
hornblende
Clay minerals are from what color of silicates and what are they the products of
ex
light silicates that form as products of chemical weathering of igneous rocks
kaolinite -weathering of feldspar
Dark silicate minerals (comp.)
what gives them their color and do they have a low or high specific gravity
have iron and mg, calcium, low in Si
iron
high specific gravity
Augite direction of cleavage and angles
2 directions, 90 degrees
