NAME: __________________
Table # ____
GEO 109L – Earth, Environment, & Society Lab
SCI 210L – The Dynamic Earth Lab
Lab Exercise 2: Minerals
Introduction
This week we will start to scrape the surface of the Earth as we begin our investigation of Earth’s materials (minerals
and rocks). We will be looking at how to take observations based on basic properties of Earth’s major minerals, the
classification systems used to identify common and important minerals, and the major classes of minerals that group
minerals based on their chemical composition.
Lab Exercise
1)
Complete the mineral observation and identification chart included on the next page.
You will use the
materials provided in lab to complete all observations on mineral properties. You should use online
resources (for example - links available in Isidore) to determine the mineral class of each sample.
2)
TIPS:
Working as a group, complete the observations for each mineral and then use the identification chart to try to
identify the Mineral Name.
You may want to check some of your mineral names with the instructor as you
progress to ensure your group is on the right track with how to record your observations and use the
identification chart.
Some mineral samples have an indistinct cleavage that might be seen only with a microscope or is otherwise
hard to see in these hand samples.
If you are unsure how to distinguish between cleavage and fracture for a
particular sample, you might want to use other attributes such as hardness or streak to help identify the mineral.
You can also check with your instructor to help clarify observations of cleavage and fracture.
Only complete the Mineral Class once you have correctly identified all of the minerals.
You can use a search
engine to look up the mineral classes but be sure the terms match those you found in the pre-lab!
Lab 2 | 1
