MINERALS are naturally occuring Anthony Duclair Jersey , inorganic solids, with a characteristic chemical composition, having a regular atomic structure throughout. Man-made industrial diamonds are not considered true minerals. Having said that, there are also some Organic Minerals, such as Amber. Purists are reluctant to call organic minerals minerals, but they satisfy at least three of the criteria for inorganic mineral makeup, and therefore the point is open to debate.
How Many Minerals are there? There are about 4000 listed minerals on this planet but only a relatively few have gained popularity due to their pleasing apperance Tobias Rieder Jersey , often bizarre shapes, exquisite spectrum of colours, and trading value. Minerals are generally composed of more than one element or compound. Those which are made up of only one element are called Native Elements e.g. gold, silver, mercury, copper. The Conquistadores fell in love with New World gold and "liberated" it by the ship-load to fill the coffers of Government and Church in Spain. Silver too, along with Topaz Niklas Hjalmarsson Jersey , Tourmaline, Agate, Ruby, Diamond and many other precious rocks and minerals, have been highly prized for as long as Man was first enchanted by their beauty, commercial value and status it imparted to the wearer.
So, just how are minerals formed? Minerals can be formed in a wide variety of geological environments; deep inside volcanos Luke Schenn Jersey , at the bottoms of deep oceans, deserts, salt lakes and cooling deep deposits of molten rock. Also, under the influence of heat and or pressure, when solutions and gasses holding concentrations of specific elements cool or evaporate, minerals growths are deposited inside rock fissures or voids. These minerals are sometimes forced through as a suspension in water, the water then evaporating leaving the mineral deposits as crystals (e.g. Amethyst) when the rock void is not fully filled or as Agates Shane Doan Jersey , when the rock is completely filled. These minerals are only visible when the rock is split open; it takes some skill to decide which rock to crack open! More about that later. An example of such crystal and mineral specimens for collectors are Geodes which are round rocks containing precipitated mineral salts, these being comomonly Agates (caused by mineral salt crystals forming inside Basalt rocks), Amethysts, Quartz, Jasper.
Minerals don't necessarily need heat or pressure to be formed; water saturated with mineral salts can leave deposits (Stalactites) as it drips down from the roof of a cave, forming corresponding Stalagmites directly below, over the centuries Clayton Keller Jersey , where the drips hit. Eventually both grow to meet each other and thicken over the years. Sometimes, as a novelty, tourists can hang an item on a line at a cave, over which calcium carbonate saturated water runs; over a period of a few months it becomes encased in a hardening deposit of Calcium Carbonate.
THE THREE TYPES OF ROCK. Ok, the basic scene has been set, now let's examine in more detail the different mechanisms involved in mineral formation. All minerals are formed from ROCKS, which are an aggregate or mixture of various minerals and are the basic materials from which a mineral is formed. Rocks can be either: Igneous - formed due to volcanic activity from the Earth's core. Metamorphic - formed because of pressure or heat (e.g. tectonic plates colliding) on existing rocks Throwback Arizona Coyotes Jerseys , changing them into another type of rock. Sedimentary - resulting from the layered compaction of weathered rock materials andor shells.
Let us examine these rocks a little further:-
IGNEOUS ROCKS(from the Latin ignis - fire) can be further categorised as being Mineral crystals formed from Intrusive igneous rocks have a coarse structure because the cooling effect was slow and the crystals could grow for a long time, sometimes to a large size, especially when molten rock (magma) is trapped under ground and cools very slowly. Granite is an example of a commonly found intrusive rock. Other examples are:- Diorite Gabbro Pegmatite (Pegmatites are known to contain aquamarine, tourmaline, beryl, topaz, cassiterite Custom Arizona Coyotes Jerseys , fluorite, apatite, tin and tungsten plus a host of other minerals.
These rocks are generally only exposed after mountain-forming upheavals, when rocks deep down are thrust to the surface due to Tectonic Plate Convergence. The Himalayas, for example, are currently still being pushed up by convergence forces.
Extrusive rocks are magma ejected from volcanos and cooling rapidly on the Earth's surface. This means that their crystal structure is generally very small to microscopically small, as the crystals did not have sufficient time to develop. Obsidian (a glass-like black rock still used today by some surgeons because it keeps its sharp edge Authentic Arizona Coyotes Jerseys , down to one molecule!) & Basalt (the Giant's Causway at the northern tip of Irleand) are two commonly found extrusive rocks, as are:- Andesite Pumice Rhyolite Scoria
METAMORPHIC ROCK MINERALS (from the Greek meta after, morphe form) are formed when sufficient heat and pressure change the original rock into a completely new rock. The original rock can be sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic. The most important Metamorphic mechanism is heat, changing the rock's chemical structure at temperatures above 200 Celsius, breaking down the crystalline structures in the rock and converting them into new minerals. If the temperature becomes too high, the metamorphic action stops and the rocks become igneous. Marble is a common example of metamorphised limestone.
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