Earth System

Lecturer: Nguyễn Thuỳ Dương

[email protected]
USTH SA2.7
Textbook: Craig F, John B, David B, Dana D, Corliss K, Mary L, Erik O, Kurt R, Julie S. (2009), “Earth
science”, CK-12 Foundation

Recommended reading:

1. Laura Neser (2025), " Introduction to Earth Science - Second Edition", Virginia Tech Department of
Geosciences in association with the Open Education Initiative and Virginia Tech Publishing.
https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7c0aa36a-ac3a-4d16-90bd-b62b28db576c/content

2. Thomas McGuire (2004), “Glencoe Earth Science: Geology, the Environment, and the Universe,
Science Notebook, Student Edition”, McGraw-Hill Education.

Lecture note 3. Earth’s minerals and rocks

Reading: Chapter 3, 4

1. What are minerals

A mineral is any naturally occurring inorganic solid that possess an orderly internal structure and
a definite chemical composition. A mineral can be an element or compound, but it has a specific
chemical composition and physical properties that are different from those of other minerals.
Silver, tungsten, halite, and quartz are all examples of minerals. Each one has a different
chemical composition, as well as different physical properties such as crystalline structure,
hardness, density, flammability, and color.
2. Classification
Mineralogists are scientists who study minerals. They use a system that divides minerals into
groups based on chemical composition and structure. Even though there are over 4,000 minerals,
most minerals fit into one of eight mineral groups. Minerals with similar crystal structures are
grouped together.
2.1. Silicate minerals
Silicates are minerals that contain silicon atoms bonded to oxygen atoms. The basic building
block for all silicate minerals is called a tetrahedron, where one silicon atom is bondedto 4
oxygen atoms. Silicate minerals also often contain other elements, such ascalcium, iron, and
magnesium.
Feldspar and quartz are the two most common silicate minerals. Beryl is a silicate mineral, which
forms rings from the tetrahedra. The gemstone emerald is a type of beryl that is green because of
chemical impurities. Biotite is a mica, which is another silicate mineral that can be broken apart
into thin, flexible sheets.
2.2. Native element
Native elements are minerals that contain only atoms of one type of element. The elements are
not combined with other elements. In nature most elements are combined with other elements to
form chemical compounds. So, the native elements mineral group contains a relatively small
number of minerals. Some of the minerals in this group are rare and valuable. Gold, silver,
sulfur, and diamond are examples of native elements.
2.3. Carbonates
All carbonates contain one carbon atom bonded to three oxygen atoms. Carbonates may include
other elements, such as calcium, iron, and copper. Calcite is a common carbonate mineral.
Calcite contains calcium, carbon, and oxygen.Calcite is in both limestone and marble. Azurite
and malachite are also carbonate minerals, but they contain copper instead of calcium.
2.4. Halites
Halide minerals are salts that can form when salt water evaporates. This mineral class includes
more than just table salt. It includes minerals that contain the elements fluorine,chlorine,
bromine, or iodine. These elements combine with metal elements. Halite is a halide mineral that
contains the elements chlorine and sodium. Fluorite is another type of halide that contains
fluorine and calcium. Fluorite can be found in many colors.
2.5. Oxides
Oxides are minerals that contain one or two metal elements combined with oxygen. Oxides are
different from silicates because oxides do not contain silicon. Many important metals are found
as oxides. For example, hematite and magnetite are both oxides that contain iron. Hematite
(Fe2O3) has a ratio of two iron atoms to three oxygen atoms. Magnetite (Fe3O 4) has a ratio of
three iron atoms to four oxygen atoms. You might have noticed that the word magnetite contains
the word magnet. Magnetite is a magnetic mineral.
2.6. Phosphates
Phosphates have a tetrahedron building block that is similar to that of the silicates. But, instead
of silicon, phosphates have an atom of phosphorus, arsenic, or vanadium bonded to oxygen.
Although there are many minerals in this group, most of the minerals are rare. The chemical
composition of these minerals tends to be more complex than some of the other mineral groups.
2.7. Sulfates
Sulfate minerals contain sulfur atoms bonded to oxygen atoms. Like halides, they can form in
places where salt water evaporates. Many minerals belong in the sulfate group, but there are only
a few common sulfate minerals. Gypsum is a common sulfate mineral that contains calcium,
sulfate, and water. Gypsum is found in various forms. For example, it can be pink and look like
it has flower petals. However, it can also grow into very large white crystals.
2.8. Sulfides
Sulfides contain metal elements combined with sulfur. Unlike sulfates, sulfides do not contain
oxygen. Pyrite, a common sulfide mineral, contains iron combined with sulfur. Pyrite is also
known as fool’s gold. Gold miners have mistaken pyrite for gold because the two minerals look
so similar.
3. Identification of Minerals
Minerals can be identified by certain physical properties such as color, streak color, luster,
density, hardness…
3.1. Color
Color is probably the easiest property to observe. Unfortunately, you can rarely identify a
mineral only by its color. Sometimes different minerals are the same color and Often, the same
mineral comes in different colors.
3.2. Streak
Streak is the color of the powder of a mineral. To do a streak test, you scrape the mineral across
an unglazed porcelain plate. The plate is harder than many minerals, causing the minerals to
leave a streak of powder on the plate. The color of the streak often differs from the color of the
larger mineral sample. Streak is a more reliable property than the color of the mineral sample.
The color of a mineral may vary, but its streak does not vary.
3.3. Luster
Luster describes the way light reflects off of the surface of the mineral. You might describe
diamonds as sparkly or pyrite as shiny, but mineralogists have special terms to describe the luster
of a mineral. They first divide minerals into metallic and non-metallic luster. Minerals like pyrite
that are opaque and shiny have a metallic luster. Minerals with a non-metallic luster do not look
like metals. There are many types of non-metallic luster, six of which are described in the Table 1.
Table 1: Minerals with Non-Metallic Luster
Non-Metallic Luster Ánh Appearance

Adamantine Kim cương Sparkly

Earthy Dull Đất clay-like

Pearly Ngọc trai Pearl-like
Resinous Nhựa Like resins, such as tree sap
Silky Tơ Soft-looking with long fibers
Vitreous Thủy tinh Glassy
3.4. Density
Density describes how much matter is in a certain amount of space. Substances that have more
matter packed into a given space have higher densities. The water in a drinking glass has the
same density as the water in a bathtub or swimming pool. All substances have characteristic
densities, which does not depend on how much of a substance you have.
Density = Mass/Volume
3.5. Hardness
Hardness is a mineral’s ability to resist being scratched. Minerals that are not easily scratched are
hard. You test the hardness of a mineral by scratching its surface with a mineral of a known
hardness. Mineralogists use Mohs Scale, shown in Table 2, as a reference for mineral hardness.
The scale lists common minerals in order of their relative hardness. You can use the minerals in
the scale to test the hardness of an unknown mineral.
Hardness Mineral Associations and Uses
1 Talc Talcum powder.
 2 Gypsum Plaster of paris. Gypsum is formed when seawater evaporates
from the Earth’s surface.
3 Calcite Limestone and most shells contain calcite.
4 Fluorite Fluorine from fluorite prevents tooth decay.
5 Apatite Apatite is a mineral in vertebrate bones and teeth.
6 Orthoclase Orthoclase is a feldspar, and in German, "feld" means "field".
7 Quartz Quartz is the most common mineral in the Earth's crust.
8 Topaz The November birthstone. Emerald and aquamarine are varieties
of beryl with a hardness of 8.
9 Corundum Sapphire and ruby are varieties of corundum. Twice as hard as
topaz.
10 Diamond Used in jewelry and cutting tools. Four time
3.6. Cleavage and Fracture
Minerals break apart in characteristic ways. Remember that all minerals are crystalline, which
means that the atoms in a mineral are arranged in a repeating pattern. The pattern of atoms in a
mineral determines how a mineral will break. When you break a mineral, you break chemical
bonds. Because of the way the atoms are arranged, some bonds are weaker than other bonds. A
mineral is more likely to break where the bonds between the atoms are weaker.
Cleavage is the tendency of a mineral to break along certain planes to make smooth surfaces.
Minerals with different crystal structures will cleave in different ways. Halite tends to form
cubes with smooth surfaces, mica tends to form sheets, and fluorite can form octahedrons.
Fracture describes how a mineral breaks when it is not broken along a cleavage plane. All
minerals break but fracture describes a break when the resulting surface is not smooth and flat.
You can learn about a mineral from the way it fractures. Jagged edges are usually formed when
metals break. If a mineral splinters like wood it may be fibrous.
3.7. Other Identifying Characteristics
Minerals have some other properties that can be used to identify them. For example, a mineral’s
crystal structure can be used to help identify the mineral. Sometimes, a trained mineralogist can
tell the crystal structure just by looking at the shape of mineral. In other cases, the crystals in the
mineral are too small to see and a mineralogist will use a special instrument that uses X rays to
find out the crystal structure. Some unusual and interesting properties can be used to identify
certain minerals (table 3).
Table 3. Some other properties can be used to identify minerals
Property Description Example of Mineral
Fluorescence Mineral glows under Fluorite
ultraviolet light
Magnetism Mineral is attracted to a Magnetite
magnet
Radioactivity Mineral gives off radiation Uraninite
that can be measured with
Geiger counter
Reactivity Bubbles form when mineral Calcite
is exposed to a weak acid

Smell Some minerals have a Sulfur (smells like rotten

distinctive smell eggs)
4. Formation of minerals
Some minerals start out in liquids that are that hot. There are places inside Earth where rock will
melt. Melted rock inside the Earth is also called molten rock, or magma. Magma is a molten
mixture of substances that can be hotter than 1,000oC. Magma moves up through Earth’s crust,
but it does not always reach the surface.
When magma erupts onto Earth’s surface, it is known as lava. As lava flows from volcanoes it
starts to cool. Minerals form when magma and lava cool.
4.1. Rocks from magma
Magma cools slowly as it rises towards Earth’s surface. It can take thousands to millions of years
to become solid when it is trapped inside Earth. As the magma cools, solid rocks form. Rocks are
mixtures of minerals. Granite is a common rock that forms when magma cools. Granite contains
the minerals quartz, plagioclase feldspar, and potassium feldspar. The different colored speckles
in the granite are the crystals of the different minerals. The mineral crystals are large enough to
see because the magma cools slowly, which gives the crystals time to grow.
The magma mixture changes over time as different minerals crystallize out of the magma. A
very small amount of water is mixed in with the magma. The last part of the magma to solidify
contains more water than the magma that first formed rocks. It also contains rare chemical
elements. The minerals formed from this type of magma are often valuable because they have
concentrations of rare chemical elements. When magma cools very slowly, very large crystals
can grow. These mineral deposits are good sources of crystals that are used to make jewelry. For
example, magma can form large topaz crystals.
4.2. Formation from Solutions
Minerals also form when minerals are mixed in water. Most water on Earth, like the water in the
oceans, contains minerals. The minerals are mixed evenly throughout the water to make a
solution. The mineral particles in water are so small that they will not come out when you filter
the water. But, there are ways to get the minerals in water to form solid mineral deposits. Water
can only hold a certain amount of dissolved minerals and salts. When the amount is too great to
stay dissolved in the water, the particles come together to form mineral solids and sink to the
bottom. Salt (halite) easily precipitates out of water, as does calcite.
4.3. Minerals from Hot Underground Water
Cooling magma is not the only source for underground mineral formations. When magma heats
nearby underground water, the heated water moves through cracks below Earth’s surface. Hot
water can hold more dissolved particles than cold water. The hot, salty solution reacts with the
rocks around it and picks up more dissolved particles. As it flows through open spaces in rocks,
it deposits solid minerals. The mineral deposits that form when a mineral fills cracks in rocks are
called veins.
5. Finding and Mining Minerals
Geologists need to find the ore deposits that are hidden underground. Different geologic
processes concentrate mineral resources. They study geologic formations searching for areas that
are likely to have ore deposits. They test the physical and chemical properties of soil and rocks.
For example, they might test rocks to see if the rocks are magnetic or contain certain chemical
elements. Then, geologists make maps of their findings to locate possible ore deposits. Today,
satellites do some of the work for geologists. Satellites can make maps of large areas more
quickly than geologists on the ground can.
After a mineral deposit is found, geologists determine how big it is. They also calculate how
much of the valuable minerals they think they will get from mining the deposit. The minerals
will only be mined if it is profitable. If is profitable to mine the ore, they decide the way it should
be mined. The two main methods of mining are surface mining and underground mining.
6. What are rocks
A rock is a solid aggregate of one or more minerals that have been cohesively brought together
by a rock-forming process. Rocks can also be described by their texture, which is a description
of the size, shape, and arrangement of mineral grains.
7. The Rock cylcles
The truth is, however, that rocks do change. All rocks on Earth change as a result of natural
processes that take place all the time. These changes usually happen very slowly. They may even
happen below Earth’s surface so that we do not notice the changes. The physical and chemical
properties of rocks are constantly changing in a natural, never-ending cycle called the rock cycle.
The rock cycle describes how each of the main types of rocks is formed, and explains how rocks
change within the cycle (fig. 1).

Figure 1. The Rock cycles

In a rock cycle, any type of rock can undergo changes and become any new type of rock. Several
processes are involved in the rock cycle that make this possible. The key processes of the rock
cycle are crystallization, erosion and sedimentation, and metamorphism.
Crystallization occurs when molten material hardens into a rock. An existing rock may be buried
deep within the earth, melt into magma and then crystallize into an igneous rock. The rock may
then be brought to Earth’s surface by natural movements of the Earth. Crystallization can occur
either underground when magma cools, or on the earth’s surface when lava hardens.
Pieces of rock at Earth’s surface are constantly worn down into smaller and smaller pieces. The
impacts of running water, gravity, ice, plants, and animals all act to wear down rocks over time.
The small fragments of rock produced are called sediments. Running water and wind transport
these sediments from one place to another. They are eventually deposited, or dropped
somewhere. This process is called erosion and sedimentation. The accumulated sediment may
become compacted and cemented together into a sedimentary rock. This whole process of
eroding rocks, transporting and depositing them, and then forming a sedimentary rock can take
hundreds or thousands of years.
Metamorphism. Sometimes an existing rock is exposed to extreme heat and pressure deep within
the Earth. Metamorphism happens if the rock does not completely melt but still changes as a
result of the extreme heat and pressure. A metamorphic rock may have a new mineral
composition and/or texture.
8. Classification of rocks
Rocks are classified according to how they were formed. The three main kinds of rocks are:
1. Igneous Rocks - form when magma (molten rock inside the Earth) or lava (molten rock that
has erupted onto the surface of Earth) cools either at or below Earth’s surface (Figure 2).
Igneous rocks are called intrusive when they cool and solidify beneath the surface. Because they
form within the Earth, cooling can proceed slowly. Because such slow cooling allows time for
large crystals to form, intrusive igneous rock has relatively large mineral crystals that are easy to
see. Granite is the most common intrusive igneous rock (Figure 3).
Igneous rocks are called extrusive when they form above the surface. They solidify after molten
material pours out onto the surface through an opening such as a volcano (Figure 2). Extrusive
igneous rocks cool much more rapidly than intrusive rocks. They have smaller crystals, since the
rapid cooling time does not allow time for large crystals to form. Some extrusive igneous rocks
cool so rapidly that crystals do not develop at all. These form a glass, such as obsidian (Figure
4). Others, such as pumice, contain holes where gas bubbles were trapped when the material was
still hot and molten. The holes make pumice so light that it actually floats in water. The most
common extrusive igneous rock is basalt, a rock that is especially common below the oceans
(Figure 5).

Figure 2. Igneous rock forming process Figure 3. Granite

 Figure 4. Obsidian Figure 5. Basalt
The mineral compositions of igneous rocks are usually described as being felsic, intermediate,
mafic, or ultramafic. Felsic rocks are made of light-colored, low-density minerals such as quartz
and feldspar. Mafic rocks are made of dark-colored, higher-density minerals such as olivine and
pyroxene. Intermediate rocks have compositions between felsic and mafic. Ultramafic rocks
contain more than 90% mafic minerals and have very few light, felsic minerals in them.

2. Sedimentary Rocks - form by the compaction of sediments, like gravel, sand, silt or clay.
Sediments may include fragments of other rocks that have been worn down into small pieces,
materials made by a living organism or organic materials, or chemical precipitates, which are the
solid materials left behind after a liquid evaporates. For example, if a glass of salt water is left in
the sun, the water will eventually evaporate, but salt crystals will remain behind as precipitates in
the bottom of the glass.
Sediments accumulate and over time may be hardened into rock. Lithification is the hardening of
layers of loose sediment into rock. Lithification is made up of two processes: cementation and
compaction. Cementation occurs when substances crystallize or fill in the spaces between the
loose particles of sediment. These cementing substances come from the water that moves
through the sediments. Sediments may also be hardened into rocks through compaction. This
occurs when sediments are squeezed together by the weight of layers on top of them.
Sedimentary rocks made of cemented, non-organic sediments are called clastic rocks such as
sandstone (Figure 6). Those that form from organic remains are called bioclastic rocks, and
sedimentary rocks formed by the hardening of chemical precipitates are called chemical
sedimentary rocks such as limestone (Figure 7).

Figure 6. Sandstone Figure 7. Limestone

3. Metamorphic Rocks - form when an existing rock (of any type) is changed by heat or
pressure within the Earth, so that the minerals undergo some kind of change.
Metamorphic rocks start off as igneous, sedimentary, or other metamorphic rocks. These rocks
are changed when heat or pressure alters the existing rock’s physical or chemical make up. One
ways rocks may change during metamorphism is by rearrangement of their mineral crystals.
When heat and pressure change the environment of a rock, the crystals may respond by
rearranging their structure. They will form new minerals that are more stable in the new
environment. Extreme pressure may also lead to the formation of foliation, or flat layers in rocks
that form as the rocks are squeezed by pressure. Foliation normally forms when pressure was
exerted on a rock from one direction. If pressure is exerted from all directions, then the rock
usually does not show foliation. There are two main types of metamorphism:
1. Contact metamorphism—occurs when magma contacts a rock, changing it by extreme heat.
2. Regional metamorphism—occurs when great masses of rock change over a wide area due to
pressure deep within the earth or through extreme pressure from rock layers on top of it.
.