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Tutorial: Rock Forming Minerals
Spring 2003
Peruse the elementary geology textbooks listed at the end of this tutorial, or use other sources, to answer the following questions. Turn in the answers in written form.
- What is a rock? What is a mineral?
- What is the most abundant mineral in Earth’s crust?
- What is the key chemical attribute of the Silicon-Oxygen bond that unifies silicate mineralogy?
- Group the following list of minerals by their Si-tetrahedra polymerization (e.g. which are chain-silicates, which are tectosilicates, etc.), or, if they are not silicates, say to what mineralogical group they belong (e.g. salts, oxy-hydroxides,oxides , sulfides, etc.). Give (admittedly idealized, stochiometric) chemical equations for each mineral: Pyroxene, Olivine, Quartz, K-Feldspar, Anorthite, Albite, Muscovite, Kaolinite, Montmorillonite, Gypsum, Limonite, Pyrite, Magnetite, Halite, Diamond, Calcite.
Required Reading:
Albee, A. "Introduction to Lithophile Minerals for Planetary Scientists".
Suggested Reading:
Press, F., and Siever, R. 1994. Understanding Earth. W.H. Freeman and Co.
- This is probably the best starting place.
- Ch. 2- Minerals
- Ch.'s 3-4, 7-8- Rocks
- Ch. 6- Weathering
Press, F., and Siever, R. 1986. Earth. 4th ed. W.H. Freeman and Co.
- Ch. 3- Rocks and Minerals
- Ch. 5- Weathering
Birkeland, P.W., and Larson, E.E. 1989. Putnam's Geology. 5th ed., Oxford.
- Ch. 3- Rocks and Minerals
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