Rock Lab Report

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rtSeptember 17, 2012 NAME: Shelby Collins TITLE: What’s That Mineral OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the Mineral Identification lab is exactly what the title of the lab says, identifying minerals. In this lab, after making detailed observations of important minerals by using a tool kit, knowledge of classifying common rock forming minerals is to be gained. BACKGROUND: Before undertaking this lab, there are important concepts that must be understood that help with identifying and exploring important minerals. To identify a mineral, their physical properties must be examined. Such properties are luster, the way light is reflected off of a mineral and whither or not it is metallic or non-metallic, hardness, the resistance to scratching, gravity, the density of the mineral compared to water, fracture, irregular surface breakage and cleavage, breakage on flat planes. METHOD: The supplies needed for this lab are all included in the mineral kit, which was required for this course; it includes a glass plate, a small bottle of acid, a hand lens, a magnet, a streak plate and one small knife. 1. Read over the introduction and explanations of the minerals properties. 2. Once the concept of the minerals properties are understood, individually go through all of the minerals and take the following steps to identify each mineral: a. Determine the luster of the mineral: Metallic, or Non-Metallic. b. Determine the hardness of the unknown mineral. Using Mohs Hardness Scale, 1-10, identifies this. If a fingernail can scratch the mineral, then its hardness is less than 2.5. If the glass plate can scratch the mineral, then its hardness is between 2.5-5.5, and if it cannot, then its hardness is above 5.5. c. Determine the steak of the mineral. For this, the streak plate will be used. Take the unknown mineral, and scratch it along the

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