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Rocks and Minerals
Geologist: A geologists is a scientist who studies the earth, rocks, and minerals.
Mineral: A mineral is a natural, solid, nonliving material found in the earth's crust. The two most common minerals are feldspar and quartz. There are about 2,000 different kinds of minerals in all.
Rock: a natural solid material that makes up the earth's crust, usually consisting of a mixture of minerals.
Igneous Rock: Igneous rocks are formed from cooled magma. When the magma flows to the surface of the earth it is called lava. Some examples of igneous rocks are granite, obsidian, and pumice.
Sedimentary Rock: Sedimentary rocks are formed when layers of rock pieces called sediments become cemented together. Sediments often move far from where they form by running water, wind, waves and gravity. They collect in layers at the bottoms of lakes and oceans. Some examples of sedimentary rocks are sandstone, limestone, shale, and conglomerate.
Metamorphic Rock: Metamorphic rocks are formed by heat and pressure. Both igneous and sedimentary rocks can be changed into metamorphic rocks. Some examples of metamorphic rocks are marble, slate, and quartzite.
Rock Cycle: The rock cycle is the repeated process of rocks changing from one type into another. Example: Hot, liquid magma cools to become igneous rock. The rock breaks into pieces called sediments because of wind, water, cold, and heat. the sediments were in layers and pushed together to form sedimentary rocks. Pressure and heat change some sedimentary and igneous rocks into metamorphic rock. These processes repeat and are called the rock cycle.
Sand: A hard, granular rock material that is smaller than gravel and larger than silt.
Physical Property: A physical property is a characteristic that can be observed. some examples are appearance, hardness, streak, luster, and cleavage. They can be used to identify minerals.
Hardness: Hardness is a physical property that measures how easily a mineral can be scratched. Moh's Hardness scale is used to rate this information. Minerals with a rating of 1 are softer than those with a rating of 10. Talc is a soft mineral, while diamonds are hard.
Streak: A streak test shows the true color of a mineral by scratching the mineral to see the color of the powder trail.
Luster: Luster is the measure of how shiny a mineral is. words like metallic, nonmetallic, dull, milky, glassy, bright, and pearly are used to describe luster.
Cleavage: Cleavage is the description of how a mineral splits across flat surfaces.
Crystal: A crystal is the visible shape of a mineral's atom pattern. Matter that forms crystals must be liquid or gas, and it turns into a solid. It need to have plenty of time, space, and be left undisturbed to grow. There are six basic crystal shapes.
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