UNIT 2

MINERALS

Minerals are all around us: the graphite in your pencil, the salt on your table, the plaster
on your walls, and the trace amounts of gold in your computer. Minerals can be found in a wide
variety of consumer products including paper, medicine, processed foods, cosmetics, and many
more. And of course, everything made of metal is also derived from minerals.

Mineral is a naturally occurring combination of specific elements arranged in a

particular repeating three-dimensional structure .

“Naturally occurring” implies that minerals are not artificially made, although many
naturally occurring minerals (e.g., diamond) are also made in laboratories. That doesn’t
disqualify them from being minerals.

“Specific elements” means that most minerals have a specific chemical formula or
composition. The mineral pyrite, for example, is FeS 2 (two atoms of sulphur for each atom of
iron), and any significant departure from that would make it a different mineral. But many
minerals have variable compositions within a specific range. The mineral olivine, for example,
can range all the way from Fe 2SiO4 to Mg2SiO4. Intervening compositions are written as
(Fe,Mg)2SiO4 meaning that Fe and Mg can be present in any proportion. This type of substitution
is known as solid solution.

Most important of all, a mineral has a specific “repeating three-dimensional structure”

or “lattice,” which is the way in which the atoms are arranged.

MINERAL PROPERTIES
Minerals are universal. Some of the mineral properties that are useful for identification
are as follows:

Colour
Colour is one of our key ways of identifying objects. While some minerals have
particularly distinctive colours that make good diagnostic properties, many do not, and
for many, colour is simply unreliable.
 The mineral sulphur is always a distinctive and unique yellow. Hematite, on the
other hand, is an example of a mineral for which colour is not diagnostic. In some forms
hematite is deep dull red, but in others it is black and shiny metallic. Many other minerals
can have a wide range of colours (e.g., quartz, feldspar, amphibole, fluorite, and calcite).
In most cases, the variations in colours are a result of varying proportions of trace
elements within the mineral. In the case of quartz, for example, yellow quartz (citrine)
has trace amounts of ferric iron (Fe3+), rose quartz has trace amounts of manganese,
purple quartz (amethyst) has trace amounts of iron, and milky quartz, which is very
common, has millions of fluid inclusions (tiny cavities, each filled with water).

Streak
In the context of minerals, “colour” is what you see when light reflects off the
surface of the sample. One reason that colour can be so variable is that the type of surface
is variable. If we grind a small amount of the sample to a powder we get a much better
indication of its actual colour. This can easily be done by scraping a corner of the sample
across a streak plate (a piece of unglazed porcelain). The result is that some of the
mineral gets ground to a powder and we can get a better impression of its “true” colour .
Lustre
Lustre is the way light reflects off the surface of a mineral, and the degree to
which it penetrates into the interior. The key distinction is between metallic and non-
metallic lustres. Light does not pass through metals, and that is the main reason they look
“metallic.” Even a thin sheet of metal — such as aluminum foil — will prevent light from
passing through it. Many non-metallic minerals may look as if light will not pass through
them, but if you take a closer look at a thin edge of the mineral you can see that it does. If
a non-metallic mineral has a shiny, reflective surface, then it is called “glassy.” If it is
dull and non-reflective, it is “earthy.” Other types of non-metallic lustres are “silky,”
“pearly,” and “resinous.” Lustre is a good diagnostic property, since most minerals will
always appear either metallic or non-metallic.

Hardness
One of the most important diagnostic properties of a mineral is its hardness. In
1812 German mineralogist Friedrich Mohs came up with a list of 10 reasonably common
minerals that had a wide range of hardness. These minerals are shown in Figure 2.18,
with the Mohs scale of hardness along the bottom axis. In fact, while each mineral on the
list is harder than the one before it, the relative measured hardnesses (vertical axis) are
not linear. For example apatite is about three times harder than fluorite and diamond is
three times harder than corundum. Some commonly available reference materials are also
shown on this diagram, including a typical fingernail (2.5), a piece of copper wire (3.5), a
knife blade or a piece of window glass (5.5), a hardened steel file (6.5), and a porcelain
streak plate (7). These are tools that a geologist can use to measure the hardness of
unknown minerals. For example, if you have a mineral that you can’t scratch with your
fingernail, but you can scratch with a copper wire, then its hardness is between 2.5 and
3.5. And of course the minerals themselves can be used to test other minerals.
Crystal Habit
When minerals form within rocks, there is a possibility that they will form in
distinctive crystal shapes if they are not crowded out by other pre-existing minerals.
Every mineral has one or more distinctive crystal habits, but it is not that common, in
ordinary rocks, for the shapes to be obvious. Quartz, for example, will form six-sided
prisms with pointed ends, but this typically happens only when it crystallizes from a hot
water solution within a cavity in an existing rock. Pyrite can form cubic crystals (Figure
2.19), but can also form crystals with 12 faces, known as dodecahedra (“dodeca” means
12). The mineral garnet also forms dodecahedral crystals.

Because beautiful well-formed crystals are rare in ordinary rocks, habit isn’t as
useful a diagnostic feature as one might think. However, there are several minerals for
which it is important. One is garnet, which is common in some metamorphic rocks and
typically displays the dodecahedral shape. Another is amphibole, which forms long thin
crystals, and is common in igneous rocks like granite
Mineral habit is often related to the regular arrangement of the molecules that
make up the mineral. Some of the terms that are used to describe habit include bladed,
botryoidal (grape-like), dendritic (branched), drusy (an encrustation of minerals), equant
(similar in all dimensions), fibrous, platy, prismatic (long and thin), and stubby.

Cleavage and fracture

Crystal habit is a reflection of how a mineral grows, while cleavage and fracture
describe how it breaks. These characteristics are the most important diagnostic features of
many minerals, and often the most difficult to understand and identify. Cleavage is what
we see when a mineral breaks along a specific plane or planes, while fracture is an
irregular break. Some minerals tend to cleave along planes at various fixed orientations,
some do not cleave at all (they only fracture). Minerals that have cleavage can also
fracture along surfaces that are not parallel to their cleavage planes.
 Density
Density is a measure of the mass of a mineral per unit volume, and it is a useful
diagnostic tool in some cases. Most common minerals, such as quartz, feldspar, calcite,
amphibole, and mica, have what we call “average density” (2.6 to 3.0 g/cm3), and it
would be difficult to tell them apart on the basis of their density. On the other hand, many
of the metallic minerals, such as pyrite, hematite, and magnetite, have densities over 5
g/cm3. They can easily be distinguished from the lighter minerals on the basis of density,
but not necessarily from each other. A limitation of using density as a diagnostic tool is
that one cannot assess it in minerals that are a small part of a rock with other minerals in
it.
Other properties
Several other properties are also useful for identification of some minerals. For example,
calcite is soluble in dilute acid and will give off bubbles of carbon dioxide. Magnetite is
magnetic, so will affect a magnet. A few other minerals are weakly magnetic.

MINERAL GROUPS
Most minerals are made up of a cation (a positively charged ion) or several cations and an
anion (a negatively charged ion (e.g., S2–) or an anion complex (e.g., SO42–). For example, in the
mineral hematite (Fe2O3), the cation is Fe3+ (iron) and the anion is O 2– (oxygen). We group
minerals into classes on the basis of their predominant anion or anion group. These include
oxides, sulphides, carbonates, silicates, and others. Silicates are by far the predominant group in
terms of their abundance within the crust and mantle. Some examples of minerals from the
different mineral groups are given below.
The Mineral Groups and Examples
 Oxide minerals have oxygen (O2–) as their anion, but they exclude those with
oxygen complexes such as carbonate (CO32–), sulphate (SO42–), and silicate (SiO44–). The
most important oxides are the iron oxides hematite and magnetite (Fe 2O3 and Fe3O4,
respectively). Both of these are important ores of iron. Corundum (Al 2O3) is an abrasive,
but can also be a gemstone in its ruby and sapphire varieties. If the oxygen is also
combined with hydrogen to form the hydroxyl anion (OH –) the mineral is known as a
hydroxide. Some important hydroxides are limonite and bauxite, which are ores of iron
and aluminium respectively. Frozen water (H2O) is a mineral (an oxide), but liquid water
is not because it doesn’t have a regular lattice.

Sulphides are minerals with the S–2 anion, and they include galena (PbS),
sphalerite (ZnS), chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), and molybdenite (MoS2), which are the most
important ores of lead, zinc, copper, and molybdenum respectively. Some other sulphide
minerals are pyrite (FeS2), bornite (Cu5FeS4), stibnite (Sb2S3), and arsenopyrite (FeAsS).

Sulphates are minerals with the SO 4–2 anion, and these include anhydrite (CaSO4)
and its cousin gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) and the sulphates of barium and strontium: barite
(BaSO4) and celestite (SrSO4). In all of these minerals, the cation has a +2 charge, which
balances the –2 charge on the sulphate ion.

The halides are so named because the anions include the halogen elements
chlorine, fluorine, bromine, etc. Examples are halite (NaCl), cryolite (Na3AlF6), and
fluorite (CaF2).
 The carbonates include minerals in which the anion is the CO3–2 complex. The
carbonate combines with +2 cations to form minerals such as calcite (CaCO3), magnesite
(MgCO3), dolomite ((Ca,Mg)CO3), and siderite (FeCO3). The copper minerals malachite
and azurite are also carbonates.

In phosphate minerals, the anion is the PO4–3 complex. An important phosphate

mineral is apatite (Ca5(PO4)3(OH)), which is what your teeth are made of.

The silicate minerals include the elements silicon and oxygen in varying
proportions ranging from Si : O2 to Si : O4.

Native minerals are single-element minerals, such as gold, copper, sulphur, and
graphite.

FORMATION OF MINERALS
In order for a mineral crystal to grow, the elements needed to make it must be present in
the appropriate proportions, the physical and chemical conditions must be favourable, and there
must be sufficient time for the atoms to become arranged.
Physical and chemical conditions include factors such as temperature, pressure, presence
of water, pH, and amount of oxygen available. Time is one of the most important factors because
it takes time for atoms to become ordered. If time is limited, the mineral grains will remain very
small. The presence of water enhances the mobility of ions and can lead to the formation of
larger crystals over shorter time periods.
Most of the minerals that make up the rocks around us formed through the cooling of
molten rock, known as magma. At the high temperatures that exist deep within Earth, some
geological materials are liquid. As magma rises up through the crust, either by volcanic eruption
or by more gradual processes, it cools and minerals crystallize. If the cooling process is rapid
(minutes, hours, days, or years), the components of the minerals will not have time to become
ordered and only small crystals can form before the rock becomes solid. The resulting rock will
be fine-grained (i.e., crystals less than 1 mm). If the cooling is slow (from decades to millions of
years), the degree of ordering will be higher and relatively large crystals will form. In some
cases, the cooling will be so fast (seconds) that the texture will be glassy, which means that no
crystals at all form. Volcanic glass is not composed of minerals because the magma has cooled
too rapidly for crystals to grow, although over time (millions of years) the volcanic glass may
crystallize into various silicate minerals.
 Minerals can also form in several other ways:
 Precipitation from aqueous solution (i.e., from hot water flowing underground, from
evaporation of a lake or inland sea, or in some cases, directly from seawater)

 Precipitation from gaseous emanations (e.g., in volcanic regions)

 Metamorphism — formation of new minerals directly from the elements within existing
minerals under conditions of elevated temperature and pressure

 Weathering — during which minerals unstable at Earth’s surface may be altered to other
minerals

 Organic formation — formation of minerals within shells (primarily calcite) and teeth
and bones (primarily apatite) by organisms (these organically formed minerals are still
called minerals because they can also form inorganically)

Opal is a mineraloid, because although it has all of the other properties of a mineral, it
does not have a specific structure. Pearl is not a mineral because it can only be produced by
organic processes.

ROCK FORMING MINERALS

All the minerals constituting the rocks can be classified into two main types:
 Essential Minerals: These are the minerals which form more than 50% of the
rocks.
 Accessory Minerals: These minerals occur in limited quantities as small crystals.

The six minerals olivine, quartz, feldspar, mica, pyroxene and amphibole are the
commonest rock-forming minerals and are used as important tools in classifying rocks,
particularly igneous rocks. Except for quartz, all the minerals listed are actually mineral
groups.

Engineering Significance of Rock Forming Minerals

 The civil engineers need to know the properties of rocks precisely to enable them to
consider different rocks for any required purpose, i.e., as foundation rocks, as road meta,
as concrete aggregate, as building stones, as flooring or roofing material, as decorative
material etc. All properties of rocks are, in turn, depended on the properties of their
constituent minerals. Thus, properties of civil engineering importance such as their
strength, durability and appearance of rocks can be assessed only with the knowledge of
the minerals that form rocks i.e. rock-forming minerals.

 The economic minerals, since they are scare, do not influence the properties of rocks and
are hence irrelevant from the civil engineering point of view. However, if they happen to
occur in large quantities, their economic value will not permit them to be used either as
construction materials or as foundation sites.
eferences :

Physical Geology by Steven Earle

Rock Forming Minerals - Civil Engineering Notes (weebly.com)