We are able to identify minerals based on their physical properties. A mineralogist named, Friedrich Moh, created a way to identify minerals based on their individual hardness. This scale is called "Mohs Hardness Scale." The scale ranges from 1 to 10, one being the softest, such as a mineral called Talc, and ten being the hardest, such as diamond.

One of the minerals that we, as students, see and use almost everyday is graphite. Graphite (the first image) is what is in our pencils. On Mohs hardness scale, graphite is on the softer end, being a one.

We can also identify minerals by looking at their fracture or cleavage. This means the way in which the mineral breaks. Fracture has no definite shape, while cleavage breaks along planes. With cleavage, the mineral can break it in one direction or several directions.

A mineral that has cleavage in one direction is epidote, and a mineral that shows cleavage in more than one direction is fluorite, which shows cleavage in all four directions, but it is not always obvious.

As part of this, I decided to research about the most commonly found minerals in Southern California, specifically in Lucerne Valley. According to mindat.org, there are many minerals mined and found Southern California. Some of the most commonly found minerals are gold, tourmaline, garnet, and quartz (King). This paper also brings connections to rocks and gemstones found in Southern California.

Works Cited

King, Hobarb M. “California Gemstone Mining.” Geology, https://geology.com/gemstones/states/california.shtml.

“Lucerne Valley Limestone District, San Bernardino Co ... - Mindat.org.” Mindat.org, https://www.mindat.org/loc-209067.html.

Our bodies need minerals to survive. There are seven major minerals in our foods that our bodies need from the foods we consume. These minerals include calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur (Precious). There are also trace minerals that we need. Some examples of trace minerals that we need are chromium, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc (Precious). Our dark leafy greens contain the most variety of minerals our bodies need. These dark leafy greens contain high levels of "...iron, magnesium, potassium, and calcium" (Yan). This is why we need to consume a variety of different texture and color of vegetables because our bodies do not produce these minerals it needs and we can only get the minerals through the foods we eat and the vitamin suppluments we take.