Rocks And Minerals Essay Research Paper According

Rocks And Minerals Essay, Research Paper

According to Webster.s Dictionary, the definition of a mineral is an inorganic substance. Citrine is one of the most popular minerals. It is a variety of quartz. Citrine is a yellowish-orange mineral. Citrine is a very popular gemstone because it is very affordable and very pretty. Along with topaz, citrine is the birthstone for the month of November and the anniversary gemstone for the 17th year of marriage (www.jewelrymall.com). Citrine is also considered a symbol of hope, youth, health, and fidelity (www.houseofonyx.com). In ancient times, citrine was carried as a protection against snake venom and evil thoughts (www.jewelers.net). Other names for citrine are Imperial Topaz, Oriental Topaz, and Precious Topaz.

Chemical Formula

A chemical formula is what elements make up the mineral (Feather & Snyder, 1999). These elements can be found on the periodic table. The chemical formula of citrine is SiO2, which is silicon and oxygen (www.galleries.com).

Silicate or Non-silicate

According to Webster.s Dictionary, a silicate mineral is a combination of silicon, oxygen, and one or more minerals. Because citrine is made up of silicon and oxygen, it is a silicate mineral.

Physical Properties

The properties you can observe without changing a substance into a new substance are physical properties (Feather & Snyder, 1999). The five main physical properties in minerals are hardness, cleavage, fracture, streak and luster.

Hardness

Hardness is a measure of how easily a mineral can be scratched. Hardness is usually measured on Mohs hardness scale. The scale is measured from one to ten, with one being the softest and 10 being the hardness (Feather & Snyder, 1999). All kinds of quartz have a hardness of seven. Because citrine is in the quartz family, it has a hardness of seven (www.galleries.com).

Cleavage & Fracture

Minerals that break along smooth flat surfaces have cleavage. Cleavage is determined by the arrangement of mineral.s atoms (Feather & Snyder, 1999). Citrine has no cleavage, therefore it has fracture. Minerals that break with rough or jagged edges have fracture. Citrine has fracture because it has no cleavage (Feather & Snyder, 1999).

Streak

The color of a mineral when it is broken up and powdered is called streak (Feather & Snyder, 1999). The streak of citrine is white.

Luster

Luster describes how light is reflected from a mineral.s surface (Feather & Snyder, 1999). The luster of citrine is vitreous, or closely resembles glass (www.minerals.net).

Location

Citrine is found in most places but most miners and manufacturers go to Brazil to find it because of the quality and availability there (www.jewelers.net).

Uses

Citrine is mostly used for jewelry but is also found in oscillators and timepieces for radios (www.jewelryblvd.com). Citrine is also used a lot as a substitute for yellow sapphire and yellow diamond. Minerals are found in many kinds of rocks. In this next section, you will learn how minerals make up rocks, and how rocks are formed.

A rock is a mixture of minerals, mineraloids, glass, or organic matter (Feather & Snyder, 1999). Most people know what a rock is but they don.t know how it forms. The process of how rocks form is called the rock cycle. In this report, you will learn about the stages in the rock cycle and the three different types of rock in the rock cycle.

Background

James Hutton came up with the rock cycle. Hutton is known as the eminent 18th century farmer and founder of modern geoscience (www.science.ubc.ca). Scientists all over the world are still using Hutton.s rock cycle today.

Igneous Rocks

Igneous rocks are sometimes referred as fire rocks. They form under ground or above ground (Feather & Snyder, 1999). All igneous rocks are formed in the process of volcano formation (www.windows.umich.edu). Igneous rocks come in two forms, intrusive and extrusive.

Intrusive Rocks

Rocks that form below the earth.s surface are called intrusive rocks (Feather & Snyder, 1999). Intrusive rocks form when magma gets trapped in small pockets below the earth.s surface. As these pockets of magma cool, the magma becomes igneous rocks. (www.fi.edu).

Extrusive Rocks

Extrusive rocks are formed when lava from volcanoes cool on or near the earth.s surface

(Feather & Snyder, 1999). The lava cools because it is exposed to air and moisture. The air and moisture cause the rock to harden. The harden magma becomes rocks called extrusive rocks (Feather & Snyder, 1999). An example of an extrusive rock is rhyolite.

Rhyolite

An example of a fine-grained, extrusive igneous rock is rhyolite. Rhyolite is an igneous rock because it forms from volcano eruptions. Rhyolite can look very different depending on how it erupts (www.volcanoes.usgs.edu). Rhyolite can be made up of many different colors ranging from dark gray to pink (www.infoplease.com). Special pieces of rhyolite will show a spider webbing design.

Mineral make-up

Rhyolite is very closely related to granite. The difference is rhyolite has much finer crystals. These crystals are so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye. Rhyolite very

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