Rocks And Minerals Flashcards
What is a rock?
Rocks are naturally occurring, solid, and consolidated materials composed of one or more minerals or mineraloids. They are an essential component of the Earth’s crust and come in a wide variety of types, shapes, sizes, and colours. Made of different minerals cemented, squeezed, or melted together.
What are some chemical properties of rocks?
Melting point, composition (minerals it’s made of), solubility.
What are some physical properties of rocks?
Solid, different colours, porosity, taste, smell, texture, durability.
What are the 3 types of rocks?
Igneous - fire
Sedimentary - minerals deposited by water, wind, glaciers
Metamorphic - “meta”=change, “morph”=form
How are igneous rocks formed?
From the solidification and cooling of molten rock material, known as magma or lava.
Their parent material is lava/magma
What are the two types of Igneous rocks?
Intrusive and extrusive
What are the properties of intrusive igneous rocks?
• Formed from magma
• located inside the earth
• rate of cooling is slow
• size of crystals are large
• texture is coarse
Ex: diorite, granite, gabro
What are the properties of extrusive igneous rocks?
• formed from lava
• located on the surface
• rate of cooling is quick
• size of crystals are small
• texture is fine
Ex: rhyolite, obsidian, pumice
How are sedimentary rocks formed?
Through the process of sedimentation, which involves the accumulation and compaction of mineral and organic particles or sediments over time.
What are the steps of formation of sedimentary rocks?
Weathering - breaking up of larger rocks into smaller pieces. Caused by wind, water, rain
Erosion - movement or transportation of pieces of rock. Caused by wind and water.
Deposition - pieces of rocks come to a rest in a surface (riverside or riverbed)
Compaction - compressing rocks together
Lithification - dissolved minerals crystallize and cement rocks together.
What are the types of sedimentary rocks?
Clastic, chemical, and organic
How are metamorphic rocks formed?
Metamorphic rocks are formed from pre-existing rocks, either igneous, sedimentary, or other metamorphic rocks, through a process called metamorphism.
Metamorphism involves the alteration of existing rocks due to changes in temperature, pressure, and often the presence of chemically active fluids.
Metamorphism: the transformation of the rocks mineralogy and physical components
Summary: extreme heat and pressure
What is the parent rock of metamorphic rocks called?
Protolith
What are foliated metamorphic rocks?
Created by regional metamorphism, which is when inside the earth rocks are put under extreme heat and uneven pressure and they are cemented together. This creates layers or bands.
Ex: slate, schist, and gneiss
What are non-foliated metamorphic rocks?
When rocks come into contact with extreme heat (usually magma) and they turn into another rock (intrusive igneous). This causes the rock to be coarse and have no layers.
Ex: marble, quartzite, greenstone
What is the rock cycle?
• anything that is caused by the cooling of lava or magma is an igneous rock
• anything that melts will become magma
• anything under heat or pressure creates metamorphic rock
• anything that weathers or erodes becomes a sediment
• sediments compacting and cementing creates sedimentary rocks
What is a mineral?
A naturally occurring inorganic solid with an orderly crystalline structure and a definite homogenous chemical composition.
What are some examples of important economical minerals?
Aluminum, coal, copper, iron, lead, salt, tin.
What are chemically occurring elements and minerals?
Anything on the period table. Only 14 are minerals though (O, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, K, Mg, Ti, H, P, Mn, Ba, C) Making up 99.7% of the earths crust.
What extent must a mineral be concentrated to be economically viable?
Must be concentrated into deposits.
What are the different causes of mineral formation?
• Sedimentation (coal) - organic matter keeps piling up and compacting
• precipitation (salts, metals) - is when a mineral forms by crystallization from ions in a solution
• crystallization from magma plutons (ores) - as magma cools it will start to form crystals
• changes in temperature and pressure (ores) - can be transformed by solid state chemical reactions during metamorphism. This is because different minerals are stable at different temperatures and pressures.
• fluid inclusions - Hydrothermal ore minerals, which typically form from high temperature aqueous solutions, trap tiny bubbles of liquids or gases when cooling and forming solid rock.
What are the different mineral groups?
Silicates contain: silicon, oxygen
Carbonates contain: carbon, oxygen, one or more metallic elements
Oxides contain: oxygen, one or more other elements (usually metals)
Sulfates and Sulfides contain: sulfur, one or more other elements
Halides contain: halogen ion (chlorine, fluorine, bromide, iodine), one or more other element
What are the properties of minerals?
• Crystalline structure
• colour
• Luster
• cleavage
• fracture
• specific gravity
• magnetism
• radioactivity
• tenacity
• reactivity to dilute acids
What are non-renewable sources of minerals? (Metallic sources)
• iron
• tin
• copper
• aluminum
• gold
• platinum
What are non-renewable sources of minerals? (Non-metallic resources)
• salt
• clay
• sand
• phosphates
• soil
What are non-renewable sources of minerals? (Energy resources)
• coal
• oil
• natural gas
• uranium
How are buried mineral deposits found?
• aerial photos
• satellite images
• radiation-measuring equipment
• magnetometer: measures changes in the earths magnetic field caused by magnetic minerals, such as iron core.
• gravimeter: measures differences in gravity caused by differences in density
How are buried mineral deposits removed?
• surface mining
• sub-surface mining
Impacts of using mineral resources
• scarring and disruption of land surface
• collapse of land above mines
• wind or water erosion of toxic mineral wastes
• thermal water pollution
• acid mine drainage
• emission of toxic chemicals into atmosphere
• noise pollution
• acid precipitation
• tailings from wastewater
• erosion
