Mineral Properties Flashcards

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Hardness

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Ability of a mineral to resist being scratched.

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Flexibility

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Capable of being flexed (bendable).

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Melt

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To become altered from a solid to a liquid state usually by heat.

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Minerals

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Solid natural material that has a crystal form and its own set of properties.

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Property

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Characteristic of a substance. Properties of matter include strength, hardness, and flexibility.

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Streak

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Color of the mark that a mineral makes when it is scraped on a white tile. It doesn't have grains, layers or streaks, so it is like an igneous rock.

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Luster

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The way that a mineral's surface reflects light. The mineral is white in color, has a glassy luster and a hardness of 5.

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Cleavage

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The breaking of a mineral along a smooth, flat surface. Cleavages are described in terms of their quality - how smoothly the mineral breaks - and their difficulty - how easy, or how hard, it is to produce the cleavage.

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Rocks

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Solid mixture of minerals formed in the Earth's crust.

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Metamorphic Rocks

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Formed when another kind of rock is squeezed and heated deep inside the Earth's crust.