Minerals Q&A
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Chaffey College *
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Dec 6, 2023
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Minerals Q&A
1.
What is the difference between a mineral and a rock?
Minerals are the building blocks of rocks like letters make up words.
2.
Why isn’t cubic zirconia considered a mineral?
Minerals are naturally occurring; manufactured chemical crystals like zirconia are not crystals.
3.
Glass can’t be x-rayed because the silicon and oxygen atoms don’t line up in regular arrays.
So, what is glass lacking to be considered a mineral?
Atoms must line up in a repeating array (crystal structure).
4.
The mineral calcite is mainly made of calcium carbonate, but some of the calcium can be
replaced by magnesium.
Which of the four parts of the definition of a mineral does this fall
under?
A definite chemical composition.
5.
Why isn’t a jet, which is very hard coal made into jewelry, considered a mineral?
It is organic, and minerals must be non-organic.
6.
What classification do most minerals fall under?
Silicates.
7.
What geometric shape do silicates have with the silicon-bonded to four oxygen?
Tetrahedron.
8.
Looking at the diagram on the far right, what silicate structure do mica and clays have?
Sheet silicate structure.
9.
Looking at the non-silicates at the bottom left, which group does pyrite belong to?
The sulfide group.
10.
When panning for gold, the gold stays in the bottom of the pan, and all the lighter minerals
are floated out. What property of gold is being used here?
Gold is dense, so it sinks to the bottom.
11.
If you hit a large block of salt from a mine, it breaks into smaller and smaller cubes. What
property of minerals is this called?
Crystal structure / Cleave.
12.
Geologists can often tell minerals apart by seeing which mineral can scratch another.
What
property of minerals is this called?
Hardness.
13.
In most mine dumps, you can see a bright gold mineral: fool’s gold. It looks almost identical
to real gold. What property of minerals is this called?
Color.
14.
Why is gold usually found by itself in nature as a pure element and not in a compound?
It is chemically unreactive, so it occurs as native gold.
15.
What property of gold discourages using pure 24kt gold in jewelry?
Its softness.
16.
Gold is sometimes used to cover domes on ceremonial buildings. What property of gold
allows this to be economically possible?
Its malleability; it can be rolled out into thin, almost transparent, sheets.
17.
Gold miners often look for where stream gravels meet depressions in the bedrock on river
bottoms to find gold. What property of gold lets it accumulate in these depressions?
Its density.
18.
What would gold mining companies have to do to the Sierra Nevada today to make large-
scale gold mining profitable?
Take down the mountains.
19.
What new piece of equipment that anyone can buy for a few hundred dollars is being used
to find gold in the old mining tunnels?
Metal detectors.
20.
Placer mining is locating gold in streams and rivers. What is gold mining that uses tunnels
into hard rock called?
Lode mining.
21.
What mineral is gold most commonly associated with?
Quartz.
22.
What is the simple reason that placer mining has declined so much in California?
Most of the easy-to-find gold has been removed.
23.
What is the best place for placer mining in southern California?
The East Fork of the San Gabriel River above Azusa.
24.
What type of large-scale gold mining is profitable today?
Open pit mining.
25.
What dangerous chemical is used to leach gold out of rocks?
Cyanide.
26.
How many sides does a quartz crystal have?
Six.
27.
What color is pure quartz with no metallic or water impurities?
Clear.
28.
What is the most common mineral on Earth?
Feldspar.
29.
What does quartz need to grow into large hexagonal crystals?
Space.
30.
Why does quartz form irregular grains in granite rock, not beautiful hexagonal crystals?
Lack of space in the granite rock.
31.
Where does all the quartz that comes out of granite and gets carried down from the
mountains by streams to rivers eventually end up?
The beach.
32.
Why does quartz last practically forever?
Quartz is chemically tough.
33.
Why does gold remain in the super hot solutions moving through the crust until the very
last minute when everything cools down and ends up in quartz?
Gold doesn’t easily combine with other minerals, so it stays in the liquid phase until it cools.
34.
Our mountains have very little gold compared to the northern Sierra Nevada. What seafloor
features do our local mountains lack that the Sierra has?
Hydrothermal vents.
35.
What causes amethyst to be purple-colored?
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The natural irradiation of trace amounts of iron causes it.
36.
Why is almost all quartz milky white?
It comes from microscopic water in the mineral.
37.
What type of silicate is tourmaline?
It is a cyclo-silicate.
38.
Look at tourmaline’s chemical formula. What causes tourmaline to change color within one
crystal and form in almost every color imaginable?
The colors come from changes in the minerals’ composition through the length of the mineral.
39.
What is the name of the flaking mineral at the base of the tourmaline columns?
A tannish sheet mineral called muscovite mica.
40.
Where is the tourmaline mining district located in SoCal?
San Diego and Riverside counties.
41.
Most tourmaline is not a gemstone. What is the name for common tourmaline (98%)?
Schorl.
42.
Which is your favorite tourmaline gemstone on Slide #15?
Rubellite.
43.
What are two utilities supplied to all the tourmaline mines?
Ventilation tubing for fresh air and a portable generator to power the lights and electric drills.
44.
What are the people doing in Slide #16?
Digging for minerals.
45.
What soft mineral in the gem pockets do the tourmaline minerals grow into?
Quartz.
46.
What are large minerals that grew from magma solutions called?
Pegmatites.
47.
What is the last mineral that precipitates out of magma solutions? (Hint: It’s the second
most common mineral on Earth.)
Silica/Quartz.
48.
What lithium-bearing mineral is commonly found with tourmaline?
Lepidolite.
49.
If you wanted to get into the gem trade, where could you attend classes in SoCal?
The Geological Institute of America in Carlsbad.
50.
If you didn’t have the money for tuition at GIA, how else could you learn the gem trade or
mining?
Apprentice with someone already in the field by working at a minerals shop or a gem mine.
51.
What type of mine is Rio Tinto’s boron operation in the Mojave?
It is an open pit mine.
52.
Technically, which term refers to the mineral?
Borate.
53.
In what environment did these borate minerals form?
An arid environment.
54.
What does the mineral ulexite do to printed letters?
It is almost transparent, with the letters visible through the mineral.
55.
Which of the four borate minerals is named for the county where the mine is located?
Kernite.
56.
What product do you have in your house that might have boron in it?
Batteries and detergents.
57.
What valuable element is Rio Tinto planning to extract from its waste piles?
Lithium.
58.
What element did Rio Tinto initially hope to recover from their 100 years of accumulated
waste piles?
Gold.