1. a- Fully describe three typical ways that minerals form. b- Diamonds scratch

Question

1. a- Fully describe three typical ways that minerals form.
b- Diamonds scratch glass.  If someone gives you something clear and a little colorful and scratches glass with it, is it necessarily a diamond?  (Use the Mohs Hardness scale to answer this question.)
c- Describe how geologists identify minerals they’ve found in the desert?
d - Why is glass not a mineral?
e - What is the relationship between the way in which silicone oxygen tetrahedra bond in micas and the characteristic cleavage of micas?

Explanation / Answer

1. a) The three ways in which minerals form are:

b) According to the Moh's scale of hardness, any mineral that is situated below another mineral in the scale can cut or scratch across the mineral that is lower in hardness from it. The hardness scale is as follows :

So, corrundum can cut or scratch across any mineral located above it in the hardness scale but not diamond. Similarly, feldspar can cut or scratch across any mineral above it but not across Quartz, Topaz, Corrundum or diamond because they have a greater hardness. The hardness of glass is 5.5. So, any mineral in the Moh's scale of hardness with a hardness value 6 or greater than 6 can scratch glass(hardness = 5.5). Thus, if we get something clear and a little colourful that scratches glass, it is not necessarily diamond. It might be topaz or quartz as well.

c) In the desert regions, the mineral deposits mostly found are copper, lead, zinc, gold, evaporites etc. Groundwater leaches away the minerals from the soil and then again redeposits them in areas very close tothe water table. To identify minerals, geologists first take a close look on the physical properties of the minerals that include colour, streak, hardness, lustre, specific gravity etc and then also its habit, form, fluorescence, reaction with acid. Accordingly, they can identify and name the minerals.

d. According to the definition of a mineral, it must be crystalline, solid, naturally occurring, inorganic with a regular orderly arrangement of atoms. Glass is not a mineral because it is not crystalline but it is a supercooled liquid. Also there is no orderly arrangement of atoms in the crystal lattice and man made glass is also not a mineral because it is not naturally occurring but artificial or man made.

NOTE : As per Chegg policy, we must answer only the first 4 subparts of a question that contains more than 4 subparts. So please post the rest of the subparts in a different question so that we can answer it.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse 1
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.