Silicon And Oxygen Minerals example essay topic

300 words
A mineral is a natural inorganic solid wit a set atomic structure. Each mineral has a set chemical composition and specific physical properties. There are over 300 minerals today the earth scientist has discovered. There have been 3000 minerals that have been categorized into the following categories, which I will describe to you in the next paragraphs.

There are 7 different categories that it is broken down into. The first one in. To be in these categories you must have silicon and oxygen minerals to form a silicate. Oxides are anything's that has to do with metals and oxygen. Sullies are compounds of sulfur and metal. Sulfides are compounds with sulfur and oxygen.

Halides include chlorine and fluorine and potassium and calcium. And last but not least there is a native element is never combines with anything. In the following I am going to describe to you some chemical formulas- Carbonate dolomite co 3 calcite ca co 3- halides Halite nail caf 2- native elements silver copper- Oxides al 2 o 3 hematite fe 2 o 3- Sulfates ca so 4 h 20 - Sulfides galena few 2 Did you know the 4 percent of the earths crust consists of non-silicate materials? Non-isolates are categorized into 6 groups. All silicate materials contain atom structure silicon and oxygen. Silicate takes up 96 percent of the earths crust.

Two specific minerals take up 50 percent of the earths crust they are feldspar and quartz. IN order to determine minerals you need to use more than one specific property. The reason why is because there is so many between them. Therefore you run more than one test in order to accurately identify a mineral.