SIO 50 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Mesolite, Birefringence, Pyrite

• School: UCSD
• Department: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Course: SIO 50
• Professor: Geoffrey Cook

Document Summary

Generally, more time and space means bigger minerals. Micah- minerals that grow to be hexagonal shaped but can be different and has a smooth crystallized top. Usually nucleate and needs water to grow it, kind of has a seed of element and water and it can cause elements to nucleate and crystallized out. Minerals (a bunch of elements put togetherr, has an identifiable chemical formula, quarts is sio2) Rocks (a bunch of minerals put together, aggragates of multiple gypsum minerals) The building blocks of rocks and thus, earth. Basically, theres a lot of variety when it comes to rocks. Minerals can be colored by chemical impurities (amythest is a quartz but purple because it has less iron so its purple) Take a little piece, powder it, put under microscope and use an x-ray defractonamator, and you can chemically analyze it. Color, streak, luster, hardness, specific gravity, crystal habit, crystal form, fracture, and cleavage.