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Chapter 5: Patterns in Nature: Minerals
Guide to Reading
Although there are about 4,000 recognized minerals, only a few dozen are common on Earth. If you're fortunate enough to be taking this as a lab class or if you have access to a mineral collection, you'll probably find samples of the common minerals. Do look at them as you read along. Nothing beats hands-on experience for mineral identification and appreciation.
Most of Chapter 5 is devoted to the scientific approach to mineral study, but woven throughout the chapter are consumer-type topics:
- the contributions of Georgius Agricola and Nicholas Steno in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
- the advances in mineralogy made possible by use of optical and electron microscopes and X-ray diffraction equipment
- the questionable magical powers of crystals
- the beauty and legends of gemstones (diamonds and more)
- even the fabled "dilithium crystals" of Star Trek fame (which don't actually exist)
Mineral identification is the next topic. How do you tell one kind from another when there are so many? Fortunately there are few enough common ones that examination of a few physical properties generally allows identification of specimens in either the field or the lab.
Keeping things organized is a challenge when dealing with large numbers of anything. Since minerals are simply chemical elements or compounds formed naturally on Earth, it's logical and useful to study them as chemical groups. Minerals that are single elements are part of the native metals group. Most minerals that are compounds fit into one of the following chemical groups:
- silicates
- sulfates
- oxides
- halides
- sulfides
- carbonates