Key Understandings:
- Hardness is the mineral's resistance to being scratched.
- Luster is either metallic or non-metallic
- Cleavage vs. Fracture
- Minerals are made-up of internally arranged atoms.
- Mineral identification
- Igneous rocks: form from solidification of magma
- Sedimentary rocks: compaction and cementation of sediments deposited in water.
- Metamorphic rocks: Exposure to heat/pressur sedimentary rocks
- Rock Cycle
- Igneous rock ID: interlocking crystals, gas holes, or glassy.
- Large crystals: Slow cooling (intrusive igneous rock, formed below Earth’s surface)
- Sedimentary rock ID: Fossils, fragments cemented together.
- Metamorphic rock ID: “Wavy” mineral distortion or alignment/banding.
- Contact metamorphism: Due to heat from nearby magma.