Two fantastic free apps for Earth Science are Mineral Identifier and Common Rocks Reference. These apps are full of information for students who are identifying rocks and minerals.
How to Identify Minerals
Black rocks can be easily found in various places, including mountains and coastlines. However, a shiny black rock may not be that common. These types of rocks could be valuable gemstones or minerals that could be used for jewelries or they could also be made into a collection.
In rare circumstances, geologic conditions lead to an exceptionally pure limestone with no clay or sand mixed in. If a pure limestone undergoes metamorphism, a pure white marble is produced.
Using Characteristics of Minerals to Identify Them. Most minerals can be characterized and classified by their unique physical properties: hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, and tenacity.
The most common rock-forming minerals are silicates (see Vol. IVA: Mineral Classes: Silicates), but they also include oxides, hydroxides, sulfides, sulfates, carbonates, phosphates, and halides (see Vol. IVA: Mineral Classes: Nonsilicates).
What are the 6 characteristics of a rock? These include color, crystal form, hardness, density, luster, and cleavage.
There are three kinds of rock: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
The harder a mineral is, the more likely it is to be valuable. If you can scratch the mineral with your fingernail, it has a hardness of 2.5 Mohs, which is very soft. If you can scratch it with a penny, its hardness is 3 Mohs, and if it takes a piece of glass to scratch it, the hardness is 5.5 Mohs.
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