Exam 2: Earth Materials

The property of ______ is a mineral's resistance to scratching.

The _____ of a mineral is the color of the mineral when powdered,which is usually accomplished in soft minerals by rubbing the sample against an unglazed porcelain plate.

An atom that has an excess positive or negative electrical charge caused by the loss or addition of one or more electron is called a(n)______.

What is the relationship between cleavage,crystal structure,and crystal faces? Speculate about how different types of bonding might influence each of these.

What type of weak bond results from asymmetry in charge distribution?

In the photograph of the quartz crystal below,the angles between similar faces are constant because of the chemical composition of the mineral.

What type of bond forms from the sharing of electrons between atoms?

Silicon is the most abundant element in Earth's crust.

Which of the following is the hardest silicate structure?

Two chemical elements make up 70 percent of Earth's crust by weight.What are the two elements,and what family of minerals do they form?

Igneous rocks form from the cooling and solidification of magma.Sample (A,B,or C)_____ has formed by this processes.

Crystals of the same type (i.e.quartz)all have a similar shape with flat crystals and specific angles between crystal faces.What controls this predictable geometry?

Why is steel not considered a mineral?

In ______,two elements are so similar in size and bonding properties that one can exchange for the other during crystallization.

With approximately 3,500 known minerals,why are there only about thirty common rock-forming minerals?

What charge does the silicate ion contribute to form the silicate tetrahedron?

In the illustration below,the part of the atom that has a positive charge is referred to as the:

Based on their origins,rocks can be divided into three distinct families: _______,sedimentary,and metamorphic.

What is the difference between ionic and covalent bonding? Which type of bonding creates compounds that tend to be relatively strong and hard?

The illustration below shows five different silicate structures.Of these,the structure labeled _____ is the most abundant in silicate minerals of Earth's crust.