Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic solids with specific chemical composition and ordered atomic arrangement, often found within Earth’s crust. Although this definition might seem complex at first, understanding some basic facts about minerals makes the subject easier.
Common minerals used to manufacture steel include iron, copper and aluminium for wires and drink cans; quartz used to make glass; feldspar for ceramics and insulation purposes; silica sand used in building houses and roads – to name just a few! Most minerals have some industrial use while many can also serve as beautiful gemstones.
Crystal Structure
Minerals consist of atoms that are organized in a pattern known as its crystal lattice that repeats symmetrically throughout their mass, creating an external geometric form and specific physical properties.
Mineral crystal structures can be determined through X-ray diffraction. By shining an X-ray beam through a mineral and studying how its deflected rays deviate, one can ascertain its structure. Altering formation conditions also helps reveal it further; polymorphs are minerals with similar chemical composition but different crystal structures.
Color
Color can provide important clues to its chemical composition. Minerals with the same chemical formula may appear very differently due to impurities or structural defects affecting light refracted through them; for instance, cordierite changes color depending on how polarized light hits it; it appears violet-blue to one eye while greenish-blue when seen through another lens.
Some minerals exhibit colors unique to the element they come from, like the metallic hues found in pyrite and native copper, while other pseudochromatic minerals like fluorite and quartz exhibit an array of possible hues.
Lustre
Lustre refers to how light reflects off an element’s surface, making it one of the key characteristics for mineralogists when identifying minerals and also an indicator of purity of an element.
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Cleavage
Cleavage is the way minerals break apart and gives us insight into their atomic arrangement. Minerals may feature one, two, or all three directions of cleavage – and even their angle between each of them tells us something about its composition.
Some minerals exhibit excellent cleavage, such as mica (biotite or chlorite), quartz, and calcite; others, such as hornblende and plagioclase, have poor or no cleavage; still others such as magnetite have none at all. Furthermore, when breaking occurs the surfaces created afterward can reveal much about itself – they could be rough (termed “poor fracture”), smooth (“good fracture”) or not present altogether (termed “indiscernible fracture”). The shape of new surfaces formed after breaking depends upon hardness, crystal structure, growth patterns and growth patterns among others factors.
Elasticity
Elasticity refers to a material’s ability to return to its original shape and size when deforming forces are removed, with minerals possessing an equilibrium between strength and elasticity that’s determined by their structure.
An impressive advancement has been achieved in measuring and computing elastic constants of minerals, enabling scientists to plot and analyse an abundance of data sets.
Poisson’s ratio (n) and linear compressibility (b). Both are anisotropic; Poisson’s ratio being a fourth-rank tensor with up to 21 independent values depending on crystal symmetry class; linear compressibility being an ansotropic scalar that represents how minerals expand when subjected to hydrostatic pressure.
Conductivity
Conductivity measures the ease with which electrons flow through minerals. Only certain minerals (like copper) can act as good conductors of electricity, while many more act as poor or even resistive conductors of current. Three other electrical properties of minerals also hold great significance: pyroelectricity is their capacity to develop charges when exposed to temperature variations while piezoelectricity generates magnetic fields when exposed to electric current.
Conductivity of water depends on its temperature, salinity and total dissolved solids (TDS). An agricultural runoff or sewage leak increases TDS by adding chloride ions along with phosphate and nitrate ions into the water 1. Conductivity may fluctuate daily due to changes in temperature.
Piezoelectricity
Mechanical stress applied to materials or crystals exhibiting piezoelectricity produces an electric charge, which can then be channeled and converted into electricity.
Man-made materials like silicone, gypsum (CaSO*2H2O), Rochelle salt and quartz are frequently employed as piezoelectric materials, while natural sources like berlinite, cane sugar silk bone and even dry hair exhibit these properties as well.
Piezoelectricity in minerals refers to an effect that results from coupling between elastic variables like stress and strain and dielectric variables like electric displacement; unlike linear elasticity which only involves mechanical deformation.
