MINERAL AND ROCK

RESOURCES

DEFINITION OF TERMS

• Resource - stock or supply of anything that can be drawn on

by anyone to function effectively

• Mineral - a solid, inorganic substance of natural occurrence

• Rock - a conglomerate of various minerals formed on Earth’s
surface

• Ore - naturally-occurring solid where valuable metals

and/or minerals extracted for profit

MINERALS

Distinction

• Naturally Occurring - minerals are made, and exist, naturally

• Inorganic - minerals aren’t made from living organisms
• Solid - minerals exist in neither liquid nor gas forms
• Definite chemical composition - minerals are defined by their chemical
composition, which must be expressed by their chemical formula in specific
ratios

• Ordered internal structure - minerals must have regular, repetitive

geometric patterns or crystal structures

CHARACTERISTICS

• Optical Properties
1. Luster (lustre in other references) - property of a
mineral to reflect light; describes how brilliant or dull it is

2. Penetrability - optical property of minerals to allow light to pass through

Type

Description

Transparent

Translucent
Opaque

Allows light to pass through

Can sometimes refract light to reveal different
wavelengths
Quartz and diamond are some examples
Allows some light to pass through
Reflects some wavelengths to show color
Most adamantine, vitreous, and resinous
minerals with impurities are translucent
Does not allow light to pass through
Wavelengths not reflected are absorbed
instead
Minerals that are not adamantine, resinous,
nor vitreous fall into this category

3. Color - an optical perception described through certain color

categories (such as red, blue, etc.); considered to be unreliable
due to impurities affecting color quality

4. Streak - a mineral’s color in powdered form, achieved by

rubbing the mineral across an un-weathered surface, such as an
unglazed porcelain; however, minerals with higher hardness
cannot leave streak marks on the porcelain

• Mineral Strength
1. Mineral Strength determines how easy minerals break or
deform when exposed to stress
2. Tenacity (or toughness) refers to the mineral’s resistance to
breaking or deforming
3. Hardness (or strength) is the measure of a mineral’s
resistance to abrasions (or scratches); see Page 1 of 02 Handout
2 for the Mohs Scale

4. Cleavage is the tendency of minerals to break along the

planes of weakness; observed as the splitting between two
(2) atomic planes resulting from weaker bond strengths or
greater lattice spacing across the plane in question
5. Fracture is a form of splitting where a mineral is split
despite not having any cleavage plane due to its strong
chemical bonds between the mineral’s atoms

• Specific Gravity
Specific Gravity is the measure of a mineral’s density. It is
the weight of a mineral relative to the weight of an equal
volume of water. Since water has a specific gravity of one
(1), any material whose specific gravity is greater than one
(1) is denser than water. Likewise, materials with specific
gravities lower than one (1) are less thick.

Rocks
 • Rocks are part of the Earth’s lithosphere.
• Lithosphere [Gk. lithos-, "stone"; sphaira, "ball,
sphere"] is the rigid outer part of the Earth’s
subsystem, consisting of the crust and upper
mantle.

• Rocks are ever-changing in its form and composition,

as shown in the rock cycle.

There are three kinds of rocks:

• Igneous rocks [Lat. Igneus,

"fiery" (from ignis, "fire")] are
rocks made from the cooling of
molten material, such as magma,
lava, and other pyroclastics. The
subsequent development of
igneous rocks creates uplift,
which exposes them to
weathering and erosion.

• Sedimentary rocks are rocks made from

cementing and compacting eroded materials
from other rocks called sediments [derived
Lat. Sedimentum, "settling, sinking down"
(from sedeo, "to sit")].

• Weathering is the process of

breaking down pieces of material,
such as rocks, soil, and other
materials, through contact with the
atmosphere, water, or living
organisms.

• Erosion is the process where agents

of weathering are moving in a single
direction and carry away the
weathered materials with them.

• Metamorphic rocks are

rocks made through the
process of
metamorphism [Gk.
meta-, "beyond, above,
transcending"; morphe,
"form, shape"], where
pressure and
temperature dictate its
new properties.

EXOGENIC
PROCESSES

The Earth is a system that interacts with itself. Its subsystems also
interact with each other in various ways. The lithosphere (or
geosphere, depending on the source material) is affected daily
by its processes or by the forces coming from the other
subsystems— atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere—as well
as the main driving factor of all these subsystems: sunlight. These
processes caused by itself are called endogenic processes [Gk.
endon- (“within”) + genes (“born of, produced by”), “made
within”], while the processes made by the other subsystems are
called exogenic processes [Gk. exo- + genes, “made outside”].

Exogenic process is any process that includes

geological phenomena and processes originating
externally to the Earth’s surface (Graniczny, 2006).
Driven by solar energy and other external influences,
it shapes landforms created from endogenic
processes.

Weathering

• The gradual on-site breakdown of rocks into sediments [from

Proto-Germanic wedra, “moving air (wind)”] caused by many
factors

• Mechanical Weathering
The physical breakdown of rock into unconnected grains and/or
chunks without any chemical alteration [Lat. mechanicus (from Gr.
mekhane, “device, tool”), “belonging to machines”]

Exfoliation
The splitting of intrusive rock sheets from its original formation [Lat. ex+ folium]

Thermal Expansion
The breakup of rocks due to being heated, making rocks expand. The
cooling of the surface creates a contracting force that breaks it apart.

Wedging
The process of forcefully breaking rocks apart via external factors
[from Proto-Germanic wagjaz, “plowshare (the main blade of the
plow)”]

• If freezing water is the cause of wedging, it is known as frost wedging, as the

outward force of expanding ice breaks the rock apart. This is common in
temperate areas like Baguio, Japan, and the United States.

• If plants are the cause of the breakup, it is then called root wedging because
the roots break the rocks as they grow. This is why trees in sidewalks can
break through cement.

• Salt wedging occurs when the sea sprays salt solutions or if it seeped inside
the rocks from the groundwater, allowing salt crystals to grow and expand
and breaking the stones in the process. This is mostly observed in desert and
coastal areas.

• Mechanical weathering is also observed in human interactions, such as digging

and blasting.
Chemical Weathering

• The breakdown of a rock due to the chemical changes it is

experiencing, either on its surface or near-surface [from
chemistry, from Ar. al-qimiya]. This is usually the result of
water dissolution, where it breaks down certain rocks by
dissolving in water or aqueous solutions [i.e., water mixed
with other substances]

EXAMPLES

• Halite (rock salt) dissolves in water because salt (NaCl)

dissolves in water (H2O).

• Calcite (limestone) dissolves in acidic water because

calcium carbonate (CaCO3) neutralizes the acid in the
acidic water solution.

• Acidic water reacts quicker than regular water.

• Amphibole, pyroxene, and feldspar create clay minerals
as their minerals react with water

Biological weathering

• The process where living organisms, such as plants and

fungi, release chemicals into the affected rock (or mineral)
to dissolve them. These organisms absorb the dissolved
minerals to support their biological functions.

Erosion
The separation of weathered and unweathered materials from its
substrate due to gravity or agents of transportation [Lat. erodere
(assimilated from ex- + rodere, “to gnaw, to nibble”), “to
consume”]

• Eroded materials (sediments) are carried away from their parent

material in a process known as transport.

• The rate of sediment transport depends on its agent of transport,

which can be by wind, glaciers, water (via tidal forces), and/or
gravity.

Mass Wasting

•Also known as mass movement, it is the

downslope movement of rocks, soil, and ice due
to the pull of gravity. Hazardous to both life
and property, it is thought that these factors
contribute to mass wasting:

• Relief
The difference in elevation between two (2) places creates slopes, allowing
gravity to pull down the materials at higher elevations.

• Slope Stability
This is the balance between the downslope force and the resistance force of the
materials due to friction. An imbalance between the two (2) can either mean
stability (if resistance force is greater) or slope failure (if downslope is greater).

• Fragmentation and weathering

Rocks with weak joints or points can fall apart because they fragment from their
original formation.

Mass wasting occurs when there is an unbalanced

force that disrupts the equilibrium between the
downslope force and the resistance force. These
unbalanced forces could be as follows:

• Tectonic Vibrations / Earthquakes

• Changes in the structure of the slope
• Material Composition

Mass wasting can be classified in several ways: material

types, motion types, and movement speed. Generally,
material types include rocks and soil.

• Predominantly coarser soil materials are known as debris.

• Predominantly finer soil materials are known as earth.

Mass wasting can also be classified according to its movement. First

described by geologists David Cruden and David Varnes in 1996,
both material type and motion type were considered. General
motion types include the following:

Fall
Topple
Slide (slumps)
Spread
Flow
Complex

Deposition
The process where sediments settle out of the transporting
medium, usually associated with water [Lat. de- (“away”) +
ponere (“to put, place”), “place elsewhere”]. When sediments
settle in a new area, they form a layer called a bed. The
distribution of grains in a bed is called the bed’s sorting. A
well- sorted bed has uniform-sized (at least one to two sizes
similar) grains. A poorly sorted bed contains grains of
inconsistent sizes.

The new area where the sediments

are deposited is known as a
sedimentary environment.

Glacial

HTTPS://WWW.BRITANNICA.COM/SCIENCE/GLACIAL-STAGE

Mountainous (stream and front)

Desert (cold and hot)

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Lacustrine (something with lake)

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Fluvial (low elevations where rivers are present)

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DELTA (connected to a stagnat body of water)

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Beach

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2F2.zoppoz.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fiwlearn.net%2Fmarine%2Fhighlights%2Fside-ev
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MARINE (saltwater is dominant)

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