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Exploring Minerals: A Quiz on Composition and Properties

This quiz assesses knowledge of minerals, their compositions, classifications, and properties, providing insights into the fundamental concepts of mineralogy.

#Minerals #Geology #Mineralogy #Earth Sciences #Education

1 For example, ________ and marcasite are both iron sulfide, but their arrangement of atoms differs.

2 The carbonate class also includes the ________ and borate minerals.

3 The ________ composition may vary between end members of a mineral system.

4 Halides, like sulfates, are commonly found in evaporite settings such as salt lakes and landlocked seas such as the ________ and Great Salt Lake.

5 The carbonate minerals consist of those minerals containing the anion (CO3)2- and include ________ and aragonite (both calcium carbonate), dolomite (magnesium/calcium carbonate) and siderite (iron carbonate).

6 The ________ passes into kaolinite, muscovite and quartz, and any mafic minerals such as pyroxenes, amphiboles or biotite have been present they are often altered to chlorite, epidote, rutile and other substances.

7 They are here categorized by ________ group.

8 the ________, Utah) and also in karst regions, where the dissolution and reprecipitation of carbonates leads to the formation of caves, stalactites and stalagmites.

9 Other properties: fluorescence (response to ultraviolet light), magnetism, radioactivity, tenacity (response to mechanical induced changes of shape or form), piezoelectricity and reactivity to dilute ________.

10 Calcite is most common in limestones, as these consist essentially of ________; quartz is common in sandstones and in certain igneous rocks which contain a high percentage of silica.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the mineral erionite is a carcinogen, and chronic exposure to this mineral has been linked to excess mortality from mesothelioma in a number of villages in Turkey.
  • the mineral athabascaite was discovered in 1949 during a research study of radioactive materials collected from Lake Athabasca in Saskatchewan, Canada.
  • the streak of a mineral, the color of the mark it makes when rubbed on a plate, is usually a more consistent identifier than the color of the original mineral.
  • the only known source of the mineral Macaulayite in the world is in a quarry at the foot of Bennachie, Aberdeenshire – but it may also be present on Mars.
  • when yellow crystals of mosesite, a very rare mineral found in deposits of mercury, are heated to 186 °C (367 °F), they become isotropic.
  • the uncommon thorium nesosilicate mineral Huttonite (unit cell pictured) was first discovered in 1950 in New Zealand.
  • decades after its discovery in 1955 in Turkey's Bursa Province, bursaite was officially discredited as a mineral in 2006.
  • taranakite, a mineral formed from the reaction of clays or aluminous rocks with materials derived from bat or bird guano, was first found in New Zealand's Sugar Loaf Islands in 1865.
  • CRISM is a spectrometer on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and will be used to find minerals on the surface of Mars.
  • mineralogist George Switzer persuaded Harry Winston to donate the Hope Diamond (pictured) to the Smithsonian Institution, establishing the National Museum of Natural History's gem and mineral collection.
  • jerrygibbsite ((Mn,Zn)9(SiO4)4(OH)2) is a rare mineral of which there are only five known samples in the world.
  • rubicline was the first mineral discovered with rubidium as an essential constituent.
  • silicosis is a lung disease caused by inhalation of silica, the second most common mineral on earth's crust.
  • crystals of Paulingite, a rare zeolite mineral found in vesicles in the basaltic rocks from the Columbia River, form a perfect clear rhombic dodecahedron.
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