Rock Forming

Minerals
Rock-forming minerals are minerals that are commonly found in the
Earth’s crust and are responsible for the formation of various types
of rocks. These minerals make up most of the the Earth’s crust and
are the building blocks of rocks, which are aggregates of minerals.
Rock-forming minerals are typically silicate minerals, which are
composed of silicon (Si) and oxygen (O), along with other elements
such as aluminum (Al), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), potassium
(K), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), and others. These minerals are typically
solid, crystalline, and naturally occurring, and they play a crucial
role in the geology and geosciences, as they help scientists
understand the processes that shape the Earth’s crust, such as
igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic processes. Examples of
rock-forming minerals include quartz, feldspars, micas, amphiboles,
pyroxenes, calcite, and others.
There are numerous rock-forming minerals that are commonly
found in rocks. Some of the most common rock-forming minerals
include:
1.Quartz (SiO2): Quartz is one of the most abundant minerals on
Earth and is a major component of many rocks, including
granite, quartzite, and sandstone. It is known for its hardness,
resistance to weathering, and wide range of colors and crystal
forms.
2.Feldspars: Feldspars are a group of rock-forming minerals that
make up a significant portion of the Earth’s crust. The most
common types of feldspars are orthoclase, plagioclase,
and microcline. Feldspars are important components of igneous,
sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, and their composition and
proportions can provide clues about the rock’s origin and history.
3. Mica: Mica is a group of sheet silicate minerals,
including muscovite and biotite, known for their excellent cleavage
and distinctive platy appearance. Mica minerals are common in
metamorphic rocks and can also occur in igneous and sedimentary
rocks.

4. Amphibole: Amphibole minerals, such as hornblende and

actinolite, are common in many types of rocks, including igneous,
metamorphic, and some sedimentary rocks. They are characterized
by their elongated crystal shapes and typically dark color.

5. Pyroxene: Pyroxene minerals, such as augite and diopside, are

common in igneous and some metamorphic rocks. They are
typically dark-colored and have a prismatic crystal shape.
6. Calcite (CaCO3): Calcite is a common mineral that forms in
sedimentary rocks, such as limestone and marble. It is known for its
rhombohedral crystal shape and effervescence in the presence of
weak acids.

7. Olivine: Olivine minerals, such as forsterite and fayalite, are

common in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks, such as basalt
and peridotite. Olivine is typically green in color and has a granular
appearance.

8. Clay minerals: Clay minerals, such as kaolinite, montmorillonite,

and illite, are common in sedimentary rocks, particularly shales.
They have a layered structure and are important components of soil
and sediment.
9. Carbonates: Carbonate minerals, such as calcite, dolomite,
and aragonite, are common in sedimentary rocks, particularly
limestones and dolostones. They are known for their characteristic
reaction with acids and are important for understanding
sedimentary environments and processes.
10. Hematite (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4): These iron oxide
minerals are common in many types of rocks and are important for
their magnetic properties. They can be found in igneous,
metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks.
These are just some of the many rock-forming minerals that are
commonly found in rocks. The mineralogical composition of rocks
can provide valuable information about their origin, history, and
physical properties, and is essential for understanding the Earth’s
geology.
Physical properties
The most common minerals in Earth's crust can often be identified
in the field using basic physical properties such as color, shape, and
hardness. The context of a mineral is important, too –
some minerals can form under the same conditions, so you are
likely to find them in the same rock, while others form under very
different conditions and will never occur in the same rock. For this
reason, context (the other surrounding minerals and type of rock)
can often be used to rule out minerals that have similar color, for
example. Although there are many thousands of named minerals,
only a dozen or so are common in Earth's crust. Testing a few
physical properties therefore means that you can identify about
90% of what you are likely to encounter in the field.
Because the physical properties of a mineral are determined by its
chemical composition and internal atomic structure, they can be
used diagnostically, the way a runny nose and sore throat can be
used to diagnose a cold. There are many physical properties of
minerals that are testable with varying degrees of ease, including
color, crystal form (or shape), hardness, luster (or shine), density,
and cleavage or fracture (how the mineral breaks). In addition,
many minerals have unique properties, such
as radioactivity, fluorescence under black light, or reaction to acid.
In most cases, it is necessary to observe a few properties to identify
a mineral; to extend the medical analogy even further, a runny nose
is a symptom of a cold virus, allergies, or a sinus infection among
other things, so we have to use other symptoms to diagnose the
problem – a headache, fever, watery eyes, and so on.
Color
The most obvious property of a mineral, its color, is unfortunately also
the least diagnostic. In the same way that a headache is a symptom for a
whole host of problems from the flu to a head injury, many minerals
share the same color. For example, several minerals are green in color –
olivine, epidote, and actinolite, just to name a few. On the other
extreme, one mineral can take on several different colors if there are
impurities in the chemical composition, such as quartz, which can be
clear, smoky, pink, purple, or yellow.
Part of the reason that the color of minerals is not uniquely diagnostic is
that there are several components of the crystal compositions and
structure that can produce color. The presence of some elements, such
as iron, always results in a colored mineral, but iron can produce a wide
variety of colors depending on its state of oxidation – black, red, or
green, most commonly.
Crystal form
The external shape of a mineral crystal (or its crystal form) is
determined largely by its internal atomic structure, which means
that this property can be highly diagnostic.
Hardness
The hardness of a mineral can be tested in several ways. Most
commonly, minerals are compared to an object of known hardness
using a scratch test – if a nail, for example, can scratch a crystal,
than the nail is harder than that mineral. In the early
1800s, Friedrich Mohs, an Austrian mineralogist, developed a
relative hardness scale based on the scratch test. He assigned
integer numbers to each mineral, where 1 is the softest and 10 is
the hardest.
He assigned integer
numbers to each
mineral, where 1 is the
softest and 10 is the
hardest.
Luster
The luster of a mineral is the way that it reflects light. This may
seem like a difficult distinction to make, but picture the difference
between the way light reflects off a glass window and the way it
reflects off of a shiny chrome car bumper. A mineral that reflects
light the way glass does has a vitreous (or glassy) luster; a mineral
that reflects light like chrome has a metallic luster. There are a
variety of additional possibilities for luster, including pearly, waxy,
and resinous (see pictures in Figure 5). Minerals that are as
brilliantly reflective as diamond have an adamantine luster. With a
little practice, luster is as easily recognized as color and can be quite
distinctive, particularly for minerals that occur in multiple colors
like quartz.
Density
The density of minerals varies widely from about 1.01 g/cm3 to
about 17.5 g/cm3. The density of water is 1 g/cm3, pure iron has a
density of 7.6 g/cm3, pure gold, 17.65 g/cm3. Minerals, therefore,
occupy the range of densities between water and pure gold.
Measuring the density of a specific mineral requires time-
consuming techniques, and most geologists have developed a more
intuitive sense for what is "normal" density, what is unusually heavy
for its size, and what is unusually light. By "hefting" a rock,
experienced geologists can usually guess if the rock is made up of
minerals that contain iron or lead, for example, because it feels
heavier than an average rock of the same size (see
our Density module for more information).
Cleavage and fracture
Most minerals contain inherent weaknesses within their atomic
structures, a plane along which the bond strength is lower than the
surrounding bonds. When hit with a hammer or otherwise broken,
a mineral will tend to break along that plane of pre-existing
weakness. This type of breakage is called cleavage, and the quality
of the cleavage varies with the strength of the bonds. Biotite, for
example, has layers of extremely weak hydrogen bonds that break
very easily, thus biotite breaks along flat planes and is considered to
have perfect cleavage (see Figure 6). Other minerals cleave along
planar surfaces of varying roughness – these are considered to have
good to poor cleavage.
Chemical properties
All minerals have a certain arrangement of elements in their crystal
structure. They can be represented by a chemical formula, which
presents the proportions of atoms that constitute them. For
example, the mineral quartz has a chemical formula SiO2
Its crystal structure is a continuous framework of silicon-oxygen
tetrahedra.

The chemical properties of minerals depend on their chemical

formula and crystal structure.
Its crystal structure is a continuous framework of silicon-oxygen
tetrahedra.
Chemical properties
The chemical properties of minerals depend on their chemical
formula and crystal structure. Solubility and melting point are
chemical properties commonly used to describe a mineral.

Solubility refers the ability of a substance to dissolve in a solvent at

a specified temperature. For example, biotite, a mineral commonly
found in igneous rocks, is soluble in both acid and base solutions.
The dissolution releases the loosely-bound potassium ions in the
mineral.
Chemical properties
Melting point refers to the temperature at which solid turns into
liquid. Minerals composed of atoms that are tightly bonded within
the crystal structure have high melting points. For example, quartz
melts above 1670°C.

In the laboratory, the composition and crystal structure of minerals

can be analyzed through chemical and instrumental analysis.
Crystallographic techniques such as X-ray diffraction are performed
to determine the crystal structure of the mineral.
Special properties
Several special properties of minerals can also be used for
identification purposes. Some of these properties are magnetism,
striations, double refraction, effervescence with hydrochloric acid,
and fluorescence, shown in Figure 4.3. For example, Iceland spar is
a form of calcite that exhibits double refraction. The arrangement
of atoms in this type of calcite causes light to be bent in two
directions when it passes through the mineral. The refraction of the
single ray of light into two rays creates the appearance of two
images.
Texture
Texture describes how a mineral feels to the touch. This, like luster,
is subjective. Therefore, texture is often used in combination with
other tests to identify a mineral. The texture of a mineral might be
described as smooth, rough, ragged, greasy, or soapy.
Density and specific gravity
Sometimes, two minerals of the same size have different weights.
Differences in weight are the result of differences in density, which
is defined as mass per unit of volume.
If you had a sample of gold and a sample of pyrite of the same size,
the gold would have greater weight because it is more dense.
Density reflects the atomic mass and structure of a mineral.
Because density is not dependent on the size or shape of a mineral,
it is a useful identification tool. Often, however, differences in
density are too small to be distinguished by lifting different
minerals. Thus, for accurate mineral identification, density must be
measured. The most common measure of density used by
geologists is specific gravity, which is the ratio of the mass of a
substance to the mass of an equal volume of water at 4°C.