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How to recognize minerals

The most common minerals properties used to identify hand specimen are the crystal form, color, streak, Luster, hardness, density and cleavage (fracture and parting).

1. Crystal form

Minerals are grouped into systems according to their crystal symmetry (regularity of form). The figure below shows the six main systems.

2. Color

Some minerals have more than one color for example; purple amethyst and yellow citrine are both varieties of quartz.  In contrast, yellow is the only color of sulfur and is therefore a useful tool in identifying this mineral.

3. Streak

The streak is the color of the powder made by crushing a mineral.  For example, hematite could take different forms and color but its streak is always reddish brown.

4. Luster

It’s the way light reflects off the surface of a mineral.  For example, pyrite and many sulfides have a metallic luster because they reflect most of the light hitting their surfaces. 

Terms for luster are shown in red. This image is from the web page of the Geological Sciences department of University of San Diego.

5. Hardness

We measure the hardness of a mineral by how easy we can scratch it using different tools like finger nails, piece of glass and piece of copper (usually a penny). 

6. Density

The density is measure by comparing the weight of a sample with the weight of an equal volume of water.  Density is one of the tools to help identify galena, which has a very high density (7.58 g/cc) and talc, which has a low density (2.7 g/cc).

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