Objectives for the topic: Minerals

Reading: Chapter 2 in Tarbuck and Lutgens

Images to understand: 2.2, 9, 10, 2B (Box 2.2)

After completing this topic, the student will be able to:

1. Explain why minerals are important to humans.
2. Define an ion.
3. Describe the way that minerals are composed of ions.
4. Define a mineral.
5. Distinguish between different types of planar surfaces on minerals (crystal faces vs. cleavage planes).
6. List the 5 most abundant elements in the Earth's crust
7. Describe a silicon-oxygen tetrahedron and explain its significance to geology.
8. List the 8 most important crustal rock-forming minerals and relate them to either oceanic crust or continental crust.
9. List the physical properties that are used to identify minerals.
10. Explain why it is difficult to identify a mineral by its color.
11. Describe how you could easily determine if a glassy-looking mineral is a diamond.
12. Explain why most mineral specimens do not exhibit their crystal form.
13. Explain the difference between a rock and mineral.
14. Name the most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust.
15. Describe asbestos, and explain the hazards associated with it.