Earth Materials

Lynn Garner

What Are Earth Materials?

• An earth material is any natural material that is not now living on the earth’s surface.

Vocabulary

• Geology: the study of the Earth

• Geologist: A Scientist who studies Earth materials, such as the rocks and minerals on the Earth

Vocabulary

• Minerals: one ingredient in the earth’s crust that can’t be broken down - minerals make up rocks

• Rocks: earth materials made up of different ingredients called minerals – rocks are made up of more than one mineral/ingredient

• Property: something you can observe, such as size, color, shape, or texture

• Crystal: the solid form of a material that can be identified by its shape or pattern

What is the difference in rocks and minerals?

Rocks• Made up of different

ingredients• Rocks can be broken

down into different minerals.

Minerals• Made up of only one

ingredient • Minerals can’t be

broken down any more.

Rock Properties

• Texture• Color• Shape or edges• Size• Mass• Smell

Rocks Science Content• Rocks can be separated into their components• Rocks exhibit a variety of properties, including

shape, size, color, and texture.• Water, setting, and evaporation can separate

rocks into their components.• Crystals form from evaporation of a saltwater

mixture.• Rocks are composed of earth materials called

minerals that cannot be physically broken apart any further

• Rocks are made of ingredients called minerals.

Measurement Vocabulary

• Diameter: the distance across a circular object

• Circumference: the distance around a circular object

• Depth: how thick an object is

• Meter tape: measures linear dimensions

• Balance: measures mass (You weigh a mock rock using a balance to determine its mass.)

Rock Types• Basalt: a dark, fine-grained rock that began as molten lava

extruded from a volcano or rift and then cooled quickly on the earth’s surface.

• Granite: an igneous rock that forms when magma (molten rock) forms deep in the Earth’s crust.

• Limestone: one common sedimentary rock – has a wide variety of colors, textures, & origins and consist mostly of mineral calcite. They form where water is present.

• Marble: a metamorphic rock, is limestone that has been altered by heat & pressure – usually white by tinted by other minerals – often used as columns or countertops

• Mock rock: forms from common ingredients found in your kitchen (flour, salt, water, food coloring, & alum) and neighborhood (sand, gravel, & shells) - resemble concrete

• Sandstone: a sedimentary rock formed when rocks such as granite are eroded by wind, water, & ice – used as a building stone.

Mohs’ Numerical Mineral Scale

Talc

Gypsum

Calcite

Fluorite

Apatite

Orthoclase

Quartz

Topaz

Corundum

Diamond

Talc is the hardest mineral softest-1

Diamond is the hardest mineral - 10

Mock Rocks

Mock Rocks

Real Rocks

Real Rocks

Mineral Types• Fluorite- is found in a variety of colors-white,

green, blue, & violet. It can be scratched with a gym clip.

• Gypsum- is a mineral that forms when seawater evaporates under arid conditions.

• Quartz– one of most common minerals and is made up of silicon and oxygen

• Calcite- a common mineral & chemical composition is calcium carbonate. It can be scratched with a penny.

• Feldspar• Hornblende• Mica-

Mineral

Tool

1Talc

2Gypsum

3 Calcite

4Fluorite

5Apatite

7 Quartz

Pap

er C

lip

Pen

ny

Fin

ger

nai

l

Ho

w m

any

too

ls

cou

ld s

crat

ch

this

min

eral

?

Bibliography

•www.fossweb.com