Rocks And Minerals

Question 1

What is a rock?

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

What are some chemical properties of rocks?

Answer 2

Melting point, composition (minerals it’s made of), solubility.

Question 3

What are some physical properties of rocks?

Answer 3

Solid, different colours, porosity, taste, smell, texture, durability.

Question 4

What are the 3 types of rocks?

Answer 4

Igneous - fire
Sedimentary - minerals deposited by water, wind, glaciers
Metamorphic - “meta”=change, “morph”=form

Question 5

How are igneous rocks formed?

Answer 5

From the solidification and cooling of molten rock material, known as magma or lava.

Their parent material is lava/magma

Question 6

What are the two types of Igneous rocks?

Answer 6

Intrusive and extrusive

Question 7

What are the properties of intrusive igneous rocks?

Answer 7

• Formed from magma
• located inside the earth
• rate of cooling is slow
• size of crystals are large
• texture is coarse

Ex: diorite, granite, gabro

Question 8

What are the properties of extrusive igneous rocks?

Answer 8

• formed from lava
• located on the surface
• rate of cooling is quick
• size of crystals are small
• texture is fine

Ex: rhyolite, obsidian, pumice

Question 9

How are sedimentary rocks formed?

Answer 9

Through the process of sedimentation, which involves the accumulation and compaction of mineral and organic particles or sediments over time.

Question 10

What are the steps of formation of sedimentary rocks?

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

What are the types of sedimentary rocks?

Answer 11

Clastic, chemical, and organic

Question 12

How are metamorphic rocks formed?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What is the parent rock of metamorphic rocks called?

Answer 13

Protolith

Question 14

What are foliated metamorphic rocks?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What are non-foliated metamorphic rocks?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is the rock cycle?

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

What is a mineral?

Answer 17

A naturally occurring inorganic solid with an orderly crystalline structure and a definite homogenous chemical composition.

Question 18

What are some examples of important economical minerals?

Answer 18

Aluminum, coal, copper, iron, lead, salt, tin.

Question 19

What are chemically occurring elements and minerals?

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What extent must a mineral be concentrated to be economically viable?

Answer 20

Must be concentrated into deposits.

Question 21

What are the different causes of mineral formation?

Answer 21

• 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.

Question 22

What are the different mineral groups?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What are the properties of minerals?

Answer 23

• Crystalline structure
• colour
• Luster
• cleavage
• fracture
• specific gravity
• magnetism
• radioactivity
• tenacity
• reactivity to dilute acids

Question 24

What are non-renewable sources of minerals? (Metallic sources)

Answer 24

• iron
• tin
• copper
• aluminum
• gold
• platinum

Question 25

What are non-renewable sources of minerals? (Non-metallic resources)

Answer 25

• salt
• clay
• sand
• phosphates
• soil

Question 26

What are non-renewable sources of minerals? (Energy resources)

Answer 26

• coal
• oil
• natural gas
• uranium

Question 27

How are buried mineral deposits found?

Answer 27

• 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

Question 28

How are buried mineral deposits removed?

Answer 28

• surface mining
• sub-surface mining

Question 29

Impacts of using mineral resources

Answer 29

• 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