Learn the meaning of a mineral and see examples of minerals, such as iron, magnesium, and quartz. Learn about minerals and their properties with examples.
Minerals | Definition, Types & Examples
Table of Contents
- What are Minerals?
- What Makes a Mineral a Mineral
- Understanding Minerals and Their Properties
- Categories of Minerals
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What are 3 examples of minerals and their functions?
Three minerals are iron, which aids in cognitive function, molybdenum, which is used in x-ray tube systems, and quartz, which is used in glass making and molds.
What are the 2 major types of minerals?
The 2 main minerals are macrominerals and trace minerals. Nutritionally speaking, our bodies require more macrominerals than trace minerals. Both, however, occur in foods and objects we don't even think about.
What exactly are minerals?
Minerals are inorganic substances found naturally on the earth, and elements found in food needed to lead a healthy lifestyle. Their internal structure is ordered and they have crystalline structures. They are solids are room temperature and have definite chemical compositions.
Table of Contents
- What are Minerals?
- What Makes a Mineral a Mineral
- Understanding Minerals and Their Properties
- Categories of Minerals
- Lesson Summary
Minerals can be defined as inorganic substances found naturally on the earth and as elements in food needed to lead a healthy lifestyle. Their internal structure is ordered, they have crystalline structures, and they have definite chemical compositions. They are essential to humans for many reasons, including aiding in immune system health, bone, brain, heart, and muscle function, hormone production, glucose regulation, and transmitting nervous system signals. They help us get through daily activities efficiently and utilize other nutrients by working together with them and are used in everyday items like ceramics, jewelry, and makeup. There are over 3,800 known elements on earth, though this number is in debate as some say there are more while others say there could be less due to re-naming or research issues. Minerals come in many different types and are placed into two distinct categories
Examples of Minerals
There are two common ways minerals form:
- Crystallization of hot magma: minerals form after magma comes up from a well.
- Crystallization of substances dissolved in water: when the liquid cools to a solid, crystals form.
There are several less common ways minerals form:
- Formation from fluid deposits, mostly saline, causing build-up and collections.
- Oxidation: frequently occurring in well-aerated soil, these substances are combined with oxygen.
- Sediment formation: collections accumulate in high traffic areas.
- Volcanic gas interaction: gases rich in minerals rise to the top layer due to their chemical makeup.
Some of the more common types of minerals are:
- Amphiboles: columnar or fibrous crystals
- Calcite: gets deposited in caves, forming stalagmites and stalactites
- Fluorite: used in ceramics and optical
- Garnet: used in gemstones
- Iron: aids in cognitive function, metabolism, oxygen transfer
- Molybdenum: used in x-ray tube systems
- Olivine: commonly found in igneous rocks, a type of rock formed when magma solidifies
- Potassium: serves as an electrolyte
- Pyrite: 1 of 3 mineral's also known as fool's gold
- Quartz: used in glassmaking and molds
- Serpentine: used in architectural stone
- Talc: found in many cosmetics
- Zinc: helps the immune system and wound healing
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Minerals are classified by their chemical properties but are also recognized by their physical characteristics.
The four conditions necessary to be a mineral are:
1) Be a solid at room temperature.
2) Have definite chemical composition, where the internal structure is ordered rather than random.
3) Occur naturally on the earth.
4) Have a crystalline structure.
Anions are the chemical basis used to classify minerals and are negatively charged ions, usually at the end of the mineral's chemical formula. Minerals all have definite chemical composition, and the chemical properties directly related to this are:
- Isomorphism: when two or more crystals exist in similar crystalline form due to similar chemical makeup.
- Pseudomorphism: when a mineral takes on the form of another's outer crystalline form.
- Polymorphism: when more than one crystalline structure exists for a chemical compound.
Minerals don't form in labs. Instead, they have a uniform structure as well as seven unique physical properties:
1) Color: some minerals have distinct colors or come in more than one color
2) Crystal form: how the ordered arrangement of atoms inside a mineral is conveyed outwardly
3) Density: the measure of the specific gravity compared to an equal volume of water
4) Fracture: uneven breaks in the mineral and cleavage: clean breaks along the mineral's planes
5) Hardness: scratch resistance, strength, not how easily it breaks; hardness is measured by the Mohs scale of hardness; for example, diamonds are a ten on a scale of 1-10, which means they're tough
6) Luster: how much an object reflects light; usually metallic, shiny, or non-metallic, which is dull
7) Streak: the color of the powdered mineral form; can be seen after scraping a mineral along certain surfaces
In the world of nutrition, minerals are considered micronutrients; our bodies need less of them than macronutrients. They can be divided into two categories:
- Macrominerals: our bodies require more of these than trace minerals
- Trace minerals: exist in many of the things we eat and don't even think about
Macrominerals
Macrominerals carry out many of the body's critical functions. For example, they aid in developing skeletal structure and help muscles contract. Some build bone, produce hormones, or regulate heartbeat. Some macrominerals were discovered as far back as the 1600s: calcium, chloride, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and sulfur. When looking for a well-balanced diet, macrominerals can be found in almonds, bananas, black beans, dried apricots, fillet steak, pumpkin seeds, and spinach.
Trace minerals
Not only are trace minerals essential for our health and development, but they also are reused through the earth's water cycle, where they end up in the oceans and seas. Trace minerals are chromium, cobalt, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc. You would never guess everything they do for us: enhance concentration and mental clarity, give us the energy to lead meaningful lives, promote cell recovery and regrowth, use nutrients for recovery to aid in anti-aging, and so much more. Foods such as bananas, dairy, dark chocolate, fish, leafy greens, potatoes, and red meat contain adequate amounts of trace minerals.
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Minerals are inorganic substances found naturally on the earth and as elements found in the food we need to live healthy lives. Among the many ways they help us today are aiding immune system health, hormone production, glucose regulation, and transmitting nervous system signals. In addition, they utilize other nutrients by working together with them and are found in numerous items used daily.
Minerals form in many ways, including crystallization of hot magma or substances dissolved in water, formation from fluid deposits, oxidation, where substances are combined with oxygen, sediment formation, and volcanic gas interaction. They are reused through the earth's water cycle and end up in oceans and seas. We use them every day in our diets, and scientists use them when learning about the world. Some of the more common types of minerals are: amphiboles, calcite, fluorite, garnet, iron, molybdenum, olivine, potassium, pyrite, quartz, serpentine, talc, and zinc. Olivine is commonly found in igneous rocks, which form when magma solidifies.
There are four conditions necessary to be a mineral:
Have a crystalline structure.
Have definite chemical composition.
Occur naturally on the earth.
Remain solid at room temperature
.Minerals can be classified according to their chemical properties but are recognized by their physical characteristics. Anions are used for the chemical basis of classification, the negatively charged ions usually at the end of the mineral's chemical formula. The chemical properties that are directly related to their chemical composition are isomorphism, when two or more crystals exist in similar crystalline form, pseudomorphism, when a mineral takes on the form of another's outer crystalline form, and polymorphism, when more than one crystalline structure exists for a chemical compound.
Aside from chemical properties, minerals also have seven unique physical properties: color, crystal form, density, fracture, cleavage, hardness, luster, and streak, the color of the powdered mineral form.
Minerals are considered micronutrients because our bodies require less of them than macronutrients. The 2 categories are: macrominerals and trace minerals. Macrominerals do things such as help skeletal structure development and regulate heartbeat. They include calcium, chloride, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and sulfur. Trace minerals help enhance mental clarity and act as an anti-aging unit. They are chromium, cobalt, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc. Many of the foods we eat, such as bananas, fish, leafy greens, red meat, and potatoes, contain the minerals needed to maintain well-balanced diets for healthy lifestyles.
Video Transcript
What Are Minerals?
Can you name some minerals off the top of your head? You likely came up with things like gold, silver and copper. These are all correct, but there are many more minerals on Earth - over 4,000 in fact! To understand what makes a mineral a mineral, we need to understand the basic requirements that categorize them, as well as their properties.
What Makes a Mineral a Mineral?
In order for something to be a mineral, it must first meet four criteria:
- First, all minerals are solid. So, while water may contain minerals, water itself can't be a mineral because it's liquid.
- Minerals are all naturally formed. This means they can't be manufactured in a lab. Synthetic gems, like cubic zirconia, are therefore not minerals.
- All minerals have a unique and specific chemical composition. This is like the DNA of the mineral - it's what makes the mineral different from other minerals.
- Lastly, all minerals have a crystalline structure. Minerals are some of the most beautiful substances on Earth, because they are always arranged in an orderly geometric pattern. Minerals of the same type always have the same geometric arrangement of their atoms.
Properties of Minerals
Minerals are classified by their chemical composition and crystalline structure. These two features occur on a microscopic level, but we can see them in other ways because they determine a mineral's observable physical properties. In other words, what appears to us on the outside is determined by what's on the inside.
The seven physical properties of minerals are:
- Crystal form
- Hardness
- Fracture or cleavage
- Luster
- Color
- Streak
- Density
Let's see how each one helps identify a mineral.
Crystal form is the outward expression of the orderly arrangement of atoms inside the mineral. What you are seeing is the actual arrangement and structure of the atoms in that mineral. For example, look at some everyday table salt, which is a combination of sodium and chlorine. Normally, what you see is a salt cube, but if you were to break this cube down into smaller parts, it would simply break into smaller and smaller cubes because that is how the atoms are arranged.
Hardness is how resistant a mineral is to scratching, not how easily it breaks. Hardness depends on the bonds within the mineral, so the stronger the bonds, the harder the mineral. Mineral hardness is measured on the Mohs scale of hardness, which compares the hardness of different minerals.
Diamond is considered the hardest mineral, so it's a 10 on the Mohs scale of hardness. Talc has a very weak bond between its atoms, and so it's a 1 on the Mohs scale of hardness. If it helps, you can think of the hardness of talc in relation to the hardness of your fingernail, which is about a 2.5.
Fracture and cleavage describe how a mineral breaks. Some minerals break very nicely along smooth planes, and this is called cleavage. Minerals that break this way do so because their atoms are arranged so that they break apart from each other along these planes. Mica is an example of a mineral that has cleavage. If a mineral fractures, it breaks in uneven ways that are not flat or parallel. Again, these minerals break like this because that's how their atoms are arranged.
Luster is how reflective a mineral is. Minerals are usually either classified as having metallic luster, which is very shiny or reflective, or non-metallic luster, which is not shiny and is very dull.
Some minerals can be identified by their color, but some minerals, such as quartz, come in many colors. Streak is often a better way to identify a mineral, which is the color that shows up when a mineral is scraped across an unglazed porcelain plate. However, minerals with non-metallic luster all have a white streak, so this is really only helpful for minerals with a metallic luster.
Finally, the density is how tightly packed the material of the mineral is. Minerals that are more dense have more tightly packed atoms than those that are less dense.
The Importance of Minerals
Minerals are in just about everything. That computer you're using? It's full of them. Do you have any jewelry? All of those stones and the gold or silver that they are made of are minerals. The copper wiring in your house, the nails holding your pictures on the wall...yep, those are all minerals!
Precious stones and gemstones are things that you are likely quite familiar with. They are rubies, diamonds, emeralds and the like. Metals, like gold, silver, copper, lead, iron and zinc, are extracted from ore, and the process of extracting these minerals is called metallurgy.
Lesson Summary
Minerals are inorganic compounds that are classified by their physical properties. The physical properties of minerals define their unique features, such as color, luster and density. While minerals do have unique properties, they must all be solid, naturally formed, have a unique chemical composition and have a crystalline structure.
Minerals are not evenly distributed across Earth, nor are they shared equally once they have been extracted from the ground. Because so many types of minerals are important in our everyday lives, they are in high demand and can cause conflict between those who can afford them and those who can't.
Learning Outcomes
Following this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Define minerals
- Identify the four criteria that must be met for something to be classified as a mineral
- List the seven physical properties of minerals
- Provide examples of minerals
- Explain the importance of minerals
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