What are the features of minerals?

There are a number of properties that are used to identify and define minerals, but the best known properties and those that are also most commonly used include color, hardness, shine, stripe, crystalline structure and cleavage. Other features used include odor, taste and magnetism. There are a number of minerals that are very similar, not identical when they are profiled according to the first list of properties. In these cases, other types of properties must be used to distinguish them. It seems that the naked eye is a few minerals to be almost identical. This is the case with gold and pyrite, which is also known as "Fools Gold", which can be identified by testing the properties of minerals that are not visible to the naked eye.

Some of the first features of minerals used to identify minerals are colors, shine and hardness. These are all features that can be tested with small to no devices. Color is something that can easily be assessed by the view of the mineral and its comparisonM with the color of other minerals. Luster indicates the ability of the mineral to reflect light. For example, a boring mineral has a very small shine, while a glossy mineral like hematite has an almost mirror shine.

Hardness can be tested using a mineral pressure. Hardness is one of the properties of minerals that can be assessed according to an established scale, scale MOHS. The scale Mohs ranges from one to 10, with the ointment calculated as one and the diamond is calculated as 10. This scale evaluates how difficult it is to scratch the mineral surface.

The crystalline structure

The crystalline structure is one of the features of the minerals that describe the composition of the mineral at both the molecular level and the larger scale that is visible to the mere eye. The crystalline structure of the mineral defines the way that atoms, ions or molecules are arranged and connected. It is also responsible for the shape that the crystal takes as it creates.

betweenOther features of minerals include toughness, transparency, diaphanuits and specific gravity. All mineral features have different ways of testing and evaluation. Some of these methods, as described above, are quite simple. There are others that are quite complex and require one or more pieces of specialized equipment.