GEOG106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Talc, Regolith, Lithosphere
21 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Minerals- are the building blocks of rocks which are in turn the building blocks of the landscape. For a substance to be considered a mineral, it must be: solid, found in nature, specific chemical composition, contains atoms that arrange in patterns to form crystals. Mineral properties: help in identifying and differentiating minerals, chemical composition, chemical elements contain. Diamond versus graphite-chemically same, but crystalline structure differs: hardness, diamond hardest (scratch all other minerals) talc softest, cleavage/fracture- tendency to break in certain directions along bright plane, color/streak. ** silicates combine oxygen and silicon, the most common elements in lithosphere. **carbonate- light colored minerals that are composed of a combination of carbo, oxygen and an element ex: limestone. Solid rock is sometimes found right at the surface, in which case it is called an outcrop. Over (cid:373)ost of earth"s la(cid:374)d area, though, solid ro(cid:272)k e(cid:454)ists as a (cid:271)uried la(cid:455)er of (cid:271)edro(cid:272)k a(cid:374)d (cid:272)overed (cid:271)(cid:455) a layer of broken rock called regolith.
