LECTURE #2: Elements & Minerals. I. Recitations start next week! please make sure you attend the class and talk with your TA about what is expected

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1 GEOL 0820 Ramsey Natural Disasters Spring, 2018 LECTURE #2: Elements & Minerals Date: 11 January 2018 I. Recitations start next week! please make sure you attend the class and talk with your TA about what is expected II. From the big picture to the VERY small one! from large-scale hazards to the scale of atoms critical for understanding the building blocks of geology we will not spend as much time on this subject as other introductory geology classes o you will get a good review in the recitation o next class we ll examine how minerals combine into common rock types III. What is a mineral? definition: a naturally occurring, inorganic solid with a specific chemical composition and a specific regular arrangement of atoms o very precise definition and they have specific physical and chemical properties identifying minerals and rocks takes practice and experience o one of the harder skills to acquire o other courses in the Department of Geology devote more time and energy to the details for example, there are five labs devoted to rocks and minerals in the Physical Geology Lab (GEOL 0055) class mineral is made up of atoms o atom: smallest particle of an element that still retains the properties of that element made up of protons, neutrons and electrons protons (+) & neutrons (o) form the nucleus electrons (-) orbit the nucleus element: substance that cannot be broken down into other substances can a mineral be an element?? atomic number o the number of protons in an atom o example: hydrogen (H) has 1 proton o example: oxygen (O) has 8 proton Page 1/5

2 periodic table: arrangement of all elements by their atomic number isotope: an element with varying amount of neutrons o example: most (98.9%) carbon atoms have 6 neutrons ( 12 C) o example: radioactive variety has 8 neutrons ( 14 C) Element Weight % Atomic Wt. Oxygen Silicon Aluminum Hydrogen Sodium Calcium Iron Magnesium Potassium Titanium radioactive minerals o unstable and over time decay (radioactive decay) Potassium-40, Uranium-238, Thorium-232, many others o releasing neutrons, protons or particles from the atom s nucleus changing the atomic number/isotope and therefore the element particle released is converted into energy heat the surrounding rocks damage/kill living tissue Page 2/5

3 Potassium-40 (19p + 20n) Agron-40 o half-life: time required for ½ the number of atoms of the parent element to decay into the daughter element Parent Daughter Half Life Aluminum-26 Magnesium ,000 Uranium-235 Lead billion Potassium-40 Argon billion Uranium-238 Lead billion Thorium-232 Lead billion Rubidium-87 Strontium billion Samarium-147 Neodymium billion age of the Earth 4.57 billion years measuring radioactive elements in lunar rocks why moon rocks?? Page 3/5

4 oxygen dominates the Earth's crust o 3 times as abundant as Si o Si is much more abundant than the other elements! o minerals naturally grow from whatever elements are available therefore, a lot of minerals contain O and Si of the several thousand different minerals on earth about 95% contain O and Si these are called the silicate minerals most common silicate: quartz Silica Tetrahedra (SiO4) o building block of most rocks and minerals o defines the crystal shape, properties, and appearance of the different silicate minerals o can have different long range order of the tetrahedra in combination with each other or other atoms single (isolated): olivine (no shared oxygen atoms) chain structure: pyroxene (2 shared oxygen atoms) double chain structure: asbestos (2 shared oxygen atoms) sheet structure: mica (3 shared oxygen atoms) framework structure: quartz (all 4 shared oxygen atoms) IV. Atomic structure of minerals all minerals are built from regular, repeating arrangements of atoms this regular structure that makes a crystal a crystal o a piece of wood is a solid, but it has no regular arrangement of atoms; it is not a crystalline solid o glass, bricks, plastic, etc. are also not crystalline solids silica tetrahedra (SiO4) sodium chloride structure (NaCl) mineral categories Native elements gold (Au), copper (Cu), diamond (C), sulfur (S) Page 4/5

5 Oxides/Hydroxides Fe2O3, Al2O3, H2O (ice) Halides NaCl, KCl, CaF2 Sulfides PbS, ZnS, FeS2 Sulfates CaSO4, BaSO4 Carbonates CaCO3, FeCO3, (Ca,Mg)(CO3)2 Phosphates Ca5(PO4)3(OH,Cl,F) o other mineral indicators (will go over these in recitation in more detail): color crystal habits density luster cleavage streak transparency fracture crystal system hardness Page 5/5