MINERAL PROPERTIES

A Mineral is a naturally occuring, inorganic substance with crystalline structure,

A characteristic chemical composition, and characteristic physical properties.
Crystal ? – orderly, predictable arrangement of atoms in a substance

A mineraloid – lack crystalline structure i.e. amorphous (e.g limonite, opal)

Quartz crystals: composed of Limonite

silicon and oxygen
Cleavage planes – flat surfaces along which crystalline substances break
because of weaknesses in the crystalline structure (weak chemical
bonding)

Good cleavage

Poor cleavage

Quartz crystals.

Fracture surface – absence of cleavage

Striations – straight ‘hairline’ grooves on the cleavage faces of some minerals.

Tenacity – the manner in which a substance resists breakage. “brittle” (glass),

“malleable” (modelling clay), “flexible” (plastic comb), “elastic” (rubber band)
 Jasper – crystals too tiny Opal - mineraloid
Milky quartz – no cleavage

Halite – cubic cleavage Calcite – rhombohedral Flourite – cubic crystal

cleavage
Hardness – a measure of resistance to scratching. A harder substance will
scratch a softer one. Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839) developed a quantitative
scale of mineral hardness.
Color – one of the most noticeable properties, one of the least diagnostic
properties in mineral identification

Milky quartz Rose quartz

Colorless quartz Amethyst quartz

Streak – color of a mineral after it has been ground to a fine powder

Luster – the manner in which the surface of a substance reflects light. “earthy”
(concrete), “glossy” (auto paint), “metallic” (silver), “greasy” (grease), “waxy”
(candle), “vitreous” (glass).
Microline feldspar – 2 Albite feldspar Muscovite mica – split
cleavage directions easily

Pyrite – “fools gold”, Galena – high Gs, cubic

Sphalerite – crystals, cubic cleavage
brittle, cubic crystals
submetallic luster
Garnet – hard (6.5-7.5), brittle. Hematite – metallic or earthy red mass,
Color: red, black, green red brown streak
Streak: colorless
MINERAL IDENTIFICATION

Flow chart for identification of minerals and mineraloids that have no obvious
cleavage
Flow chart for identification of minerals and mineraloids that have obvious
cleavage
Commonly encountered cleavage patterns of minerals
Properties of some minerals and
mineraloids that have metallic or
submetallic luster
Properties of some dark-
colored minerals and
mineraloids that have a
nonmetallic luster
Continued ---
Properties of some light-
colored minerals and
mineraloids that have a
nonmetallic luster
Continued --
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
 ORIGIN OF SOIL AND GRAIN SIZE
Chapter 1
Soil is defined as the uncemented aggregate of mineral grains and
decayed organic matter (solid particles) along with the liquid and
gas that occupy the empty spaces between the solid particles.

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Soil Particle Size

Gravel: quartz, feldspar, others Universally accepted, ASTM

Sand: quartz, feldspar

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Clay Minerals

Silica tetrahedron

Silica sheet

Alumina octahedron Gibbsite sheet

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Structures of (a) kaolinite (b) illite and (c) montmorillonite

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 In dry clay, -ve charge is
balanced by Cations like
Ca2+, Mg2+, etc

When water is added,

cations and anions float
around the clay particles.
This is called diffuse double
layer

Negative charges on the

surfaces of clay minerals

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Water molecule is polar, thus has
a +ve charge at one side and -ve
charge at the other side (it is
known as dipole)

Dipolar water is attracted both by

the –vely charged surface of clay
particles and by the cations in the
double layer

Hydrogen bonding where H atoms

in water molecule are shared with
O atoms on the surface of the
clay

Water held to clay particles by

force of attraction = double-
layer water

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Speciific Gravity, Gs

Gs = Unit weight of material

Unit weight of water

How to measure Gs?

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Mechanical Analysis of Soil

i) Sieve Analysis

Sieve analysis Hydrometer

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ii) Hydrometer

When a soil specimen is dispersed in water, the particle

particles settle at different velocity. What are the
reasons?

Stoke’s Law

s  w 2 water
v D
18

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 ASTM 152H

• 50g or 100g soil

• Measure time
L(cm)
• Measure Length D(mm)  K
t (min)
• Calculate % of soil by
weight finer than a
given diameter
30
K
(Gs  1)

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