Minerals are classified into groups based on _______.
Characteristics?
Origin maybe? For example compressed from sediments or spewed from volcanos or risen from deep in the crust ? What does your book say?
Some of the answer choices are ionic, covalent, rock, mineral, melt, crystallize, characteristics, or color. I was thinking either characteristics or color, but color isn't really used to identify minerals, so I was leaning toward characteristics.
One of my daughters classified minerals by "prettyness". The question is very vague.
Maybe but I'm going to go with characteristics. It seems to be the most reasonable of my answer choices.
To determine how minerals are classified into groups, we can refer to their characteristics. There are several criteria used to classify minerals:
1. Chemical Composition: Minerals are classified based on their chemical composition, which refers to the types and proportions of elements present in a mineral. For example, minerals can be classified as silicates (containing silicon and oxygen), carbonates (containing carbon and oxygen), sulfides (containing sulfur), etc.
2. Crystal Structure: Minerals are also classified based on their crystal structure, which refers to the arrangement of atoms or ions within the mineral's internal structure. Different minerals have different crystal structures, such as cubic, hexagonal, orthorhombic, etc.
3. Physical Properties: Various physical properties of minerals, such as hardness, color, luster, cleavage, and specific gravity, are used to classify them. For instance, minerals can be grouped based on their hardness scale, like Mohs scale, which rates the minerals from 1 (softest) to 10 (hardest).
4. Formation Process: Minerals are often classified based on their formation process or geological environment. This can include minerals formed through volcanic activity, hydrothermal processes, sedimentary deposition, metamorphic changes, or even biological processes.
By considering these characteristics, geologists and mineralogists can accurately classify minerals into different groups and categories.