ESC 1000:  Earth Science 11th and 13th Edition Vocabulary

Chapter 2: Minerals: Building Blocks of Rocks

 

 

1. Atom- The smallest particle that exists as an element.

 

2. Atomic Number- The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.

 

3. Carbonates- nonsilicate minerals which do not contain Silicon atoms and are made up of positive metallic ions and the negative ion composed of one carbon and three oxygen atoms.

 

4. Cleavage- The tendency of a mineral to break along planes of weak bonding when stressed.

 

5. Chemical Bond – A strong attractive force that exists between atoms in a substance. It involves the transfer or sharing of electrons that allows each atom to attain a full valence shell.

 

6. Color - An optical property used for identification of a mineral which is the most conspicuous characteristic of any mineral, except this diagnostic property has only a few minerals.

 

7. Compound- A substance formed by the chemical combination of two or more elements in definite proportions and usually having properties different from those of its constituent elements

 

8. Covalent bond- the chemical bond produced by sharing of electron pairs.

 

9. Crystal form- The external appearance of a mineral as determined by its internal arrangement of atoms

 

10. Density – Important property of matter defined as mass per unit volume.

 

11. Electron- A negatively charged subatomic particle that has a negligible mass and is found outside an atom’s nucleus

 

12. Energy levels- Spherically shaped negatively charged zones that surround the nucleus and an atom

 

13. Element- A substance that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances by ordinary chemical or physical means

 

14. Feldspar- The most plentiful group of silicate minerals, comprising over 50 percent of Earth’s crust.

 

15. Fracture- One of four properties used to describe a mineral’s strength which is the property of a mineral that possess chemical bonds that are equally, strong in all directions. They have three categories: irregular, conchoidal, and splintery & fibrous.

 

16. Habit – term used by mineralogists which refer to the common or characteristic shape of a crystal or aggregate of crystals.

 

 

17. Hardness- One of four properties used to describe a mineral’s strength. It is the resistance of a mineral to abrasion or scratching

 

18. Ionic bond- A chemical bond between two oppositely charged ions formed by the transfer of valence electrons form one atom to the other.

 

19. Ions- An atom or molecule that possesses an electrical charge (total protons ≠total electrons)

 

20. Isotope- Varieties of the same element that have different mass numbers; their nuclei contain the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.

 

21. Luster- An optical property used for identification of a mineral which is the appearance or quality of light reflected from the surface of a mineral

 

22. Mass number- The number of neutrons and protons in the nucleus of an atom

 

23. Metallic Bond – A chemical bond present in all metals that may be characterized as an extreme type of electron sharing in which the electrons move freely from one atom to another.

 

24. Mineral- A naturally occurring, inorganic (ionic) crystalline material with a unique chemical composition

 

25. Minerology – the study of minerals which are the building blocks of rocks

 

26. Mineral resource- All discovered and undiscovered deposits of a useful mineral that can be extracted now or at sometime in the future.

 

27. Mohs hardness scale- A series of 10 minerals used as a standard in determining hardness using a numerical scale ranging from 1 (softest-talc) to 10 (hardest-diamond).

 

28. Neutron- A subatomic particle found in the nucleus of an atom. The neutron is electrically neutral and has a mass approximately that of a proton

 

29. Nonrenewable resource- resources that form or accumulate over such long time spans that it must be considered as fixed in total quantity.

 

30. Nonsilicates- Any one of numerous minerals that have the oxygen and other elements  excluding silicon and their basic structure make up only 8% of the Earth’s crust. Some of these include carbonates, halides, oxides, sulfides and pure non-silicon native elements.

 

 

31. Nucleus- The small heavy core of an atom that contains all of its positive charge and most of its mass

 

32. Octet Rule – Atoms combine in order that each may have the electron arrangement of a noble gas, that is the outer energy level contains eight electrons.

 

33. Opaque - An optical property used for identification of a mineral which is the ability to transmit NO light.

 

34. Ore- Usually a useful metallic mineral that can be mined at the profit. The term is also applied to certain nonmetallic minerals such as fluorite and sulfur

 

35. Ore deposit – A naturally occurring concentration of one or more metallic minerals that can be extracted economically.

 

36. Periodic table- The tabular arrangement of the elements according to atomic number

 

37. Principal shell- the outer most energy level which contains the valence electrons

 

38. Proton- A positively charged subatomic particle found in the nucleus of an atom

 

39. Quartz- The second most plentiful group of silicate materials, in the Earth’s continental crust..

 

40. Radioactive decay-  Isotopes of some atoms which have unstable nuclei undergo a spontaneous change in its nuclei because the forces which bind together these nuclei are not strong enough to hold them together.

 

41. Renewable resource- a resource that is virtually inexhaustible or that can be replenished over relatively short time spans.

 

42. Reserve- Already identified deposits form which mineral can be extracted profitably

 

43. Rock- A consolidated mixture of minerals

 

44. Rock-forming minerals- No more than a few dozen of the 4000 known minerals abundant and makeup most of the rocks of the earth’s crust.

 

45. Silicate- Any one of numerous minerals that have the oxygen and silicon tetrahedron as their basic structure making up 92% of the Earth’s crust.

 

46. Silicon-oxygen tetrahedron- A structure composed of four oxygen atoms surrounding a silicon atom that constitutes the basic building block of silicate minerals

 

47. Specific Gravity – the ratio of a substance’s weight to the weight of an equal volume of water.

 

48. Streak- An optical property used for identification of a mineral is the color of powdered mineral. It is obtained by rubbing the mineral across a piece of unglazed porcelain and observing the color of the mark it leaves.

 

49. Tenacity – One of four properties used to describe a mineral’s strength. It is a measure of a mineral’s toughness or resistance to breaking or deforming.

 

50. Translucent - An optical property used for identification of a mineral which is the ability to transmit light but no image.

 

51. Transparent - An optical property used for identification of a mineral which is the ability to transmit light and also an image.

 

52. Valence electrons- The electrons involved in the bonding process; the electrons occupying that highest –principal energy level of an atom