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Home / IAS Preparation / Physical Characteristics of Minerals

Physical Characteristics of Minerals UPSC Notes PDF Download

Last Updated on Jun 20, 2024
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Physical characteristics of minerals refer to the observable properties that can be used to identify and describe them. These characteristics include color, which is the visual appearance of the mineral; luster, which describes how the mineral reflects light; hardness, which measures the resistance of a mineral to scratching; streak, which is the color of the mineral's powdered form; and cleavage or fracture, which describes how the mineral breaks. Additionally, the crystal form or shape of a mineral can provide further clues to its identity.

Physical Characteristics of Minerals UPSC is considered an important topic from the UPSC Civil service exam point of view. 

Check out this UPSC IAS Foundation 2022 Live Coaching here.

Physical Characteristics of Minerals (UPSC Geography Notes): Download PDF Here!

What are Minerals?
  • As we know the Earth has various kinds of elements in its composition. These elements exist in solid or gaseous forms on the outer layer of the Earth surface, and in molten form in the interior of the Earth.
  • About 98% percent of the Earth crust is made up of eight different major elements: oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium. Whereas the remaining 2% constitute elements like: titanium, hydrogen, phosphorus, manganese, sulphur, carbon and many more.
  • The elements which are found on the earth crust are mainly found in combined states with other elements to form different kinds of substances. These substances are called minerals.
  • This mineral can be also defined as a naturally occurring organic and inorganic substance showing definite composition and physical properties. Composition of minerals can be of two or more elements. But at the same time there are minerals which are of single elements like sulphur, copper, silver, gold, graphite etc.
  • An approx of 2,000 minerals are named till now, but a large number of these minerals are made up of six major mineral groups called “major rock forming minerals.”

You might like to read: Earth – Origin and Evolution NCERT notes!

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Physical Characteristics of Minerals

The physical characteristics of minerals are classified and further divided into several categories for your convenience and understanding. Have a look at these NCERT study notes for better preparation for the Geography UPSC exam.

External Crystal Form

  • External shape of a mineral crystal is determined by their internal atomic structure.
  • Some of the external crystal forms of minerals are: Cubic (cube shapes), Octahedral (shaped like octahedrons), Tabular (rectangular shapes, Acicular (long, slender crystals)
  • Whereas some minerals like azurite and malachite, which are both copper ores, don’t have regular crystals, they are amorphous in nature.

Also read: NCERT notes on Physical Weathering!

Cleavage

  • Crystals always have one plane along which the bonding between the atoms is weaker than along other planes. Due to this, minerals get stuck with hard objects, which will tend to break along these planes. The property of breaking along specific planes is called cleavage.
  • However, it is to be noted that every mineral does not show this property.
  • Cleavage can also be known to be its general name form, like: if the mineral breaks into rectangular shaped pieces it is said to have cubic cleavage (3 cleavage directions) and so on.
  • The quality by which minerals undergo cleavage shows the way by which minerals undergo cleavage along with its nature of exposed surface.

Parting

  • It is also a plane of weakness present in the crystal structure of minerals.
  • Mineral parting is seen in corundum, hematite, the pyroxenes (diallage), pyrite, and magnetite.

Fracture

  • Minerals which do not have any plane of weakness, then they break along the random direction which is called fracture.
  • Minerals are fractured when they are fragmented or crushed.
  • Different kinds of fracture based on observed pattern:
  • Conchoidal fracture -when minerals break along smooth curved surfaces.
  • Fibrous and splintery – When break is similar to the way wood breaks.
  • Hackly – When fractures in minerals occur along the sharp edges.
  • Uneven or Irregular – When fractures in minerals occur through rough irregular surfaces.
  • If the arrangement of molecules in minerals is complex, then there will be no plane of molecules. Then in such a case the breaking of the crystal will be irregular.

Know more about Factors Controlling Temperature Distribution here.

Hardness

  • Hardness of a mineral is determined by scratching the mineral with another mineral or substance of known hardness.
  • However, hardness is a kind of relative scale to determine. The scale which determines the hardness of minerals is called Mohs relative scale of hardness.
  • List of top ten minerals based on their degree of hardness:

Hardness Rank of Minerals

Minerals

Hardness Rank (Mohs Scale)

Talc

1

Gypsum

2

Calcite

3

Fluorite

4

Apatite

5

Feldspar

6

Quartz

7

Topaz

8

Corundum

9

Diamond

10

Check NCERT notes on Types of Rocks here.

Lusture

  • Appearance of minerals to reflected light is called lusture.
  • Lusture is of two types, they are:
    • Metallic – Minerals which have shiny appearance like metal. They are usually opaque and give a black or dark colored streak.
    • Non-metallic – Non metallic lusters are referred to as resinous, vitreous,silky etc.

Check out these NCERT Notes on Endogenic Processes here.

Streak

  • The colour which is produced by a fine powder of the mineral when scratched on a streak plate is termed as streak.
  • They are alway different from the original colour of minerals.

Transparency

Based on transparency minerals are of three types:

  • Transparent: When light completely passes through the objects and can be seen plainly.
  • Translucent: When light partially passes through the minerals but will get diffused so that objects cannot be seen.
  • Opaque: Light is not able to pass through the minerals.

Colour

  • Colour is a physical characteristic of mineral that is determined by its molecular structure.
  • Some minerals show specific colours like: malachite, azurite, chalcopyrite, etc.
  • In some minerals because of impurities, they show different colours, such as quartz; its color can be white, green, red, yellow, etc.

You might like: NCERT notes on Geomorphic Process!

Structure

  • Each mineral is made up of a specific composition having a specific chemical structure.
  • Minerals are made up of solids that occur naturally by inorganic processes.

Specific Gravity

  • Specific gravity is the ratio between the weight of a given object and the weight of an equal volume of water.
  • It is a unitless unitless quantity.

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Physical Characteristics of Minerals UPSC FAQs

Minerals can be identified on the basis of their chemical formula and crystal lattice which determines the physical properties of minerals. Some other major characteristics of minerals are: hardness, and are more useful for mineral identification.

As minerals are divided into two types i.e. metallic mineral and non-metallic minerals. Resources of metallic minerals are:Gold, Silver, Tin, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Iron, Nickel, Chromium, and Aluminum whereas nonmetallic resources are things like sand, gravel, gypsum, halite, Uranium, dimension stone.

The five main characteristics of a mineral are color, luster, hardness, streak, and crystal form. These properties help in the identification and classification of minerals.

The top five physical characteristics used to identify minerals are color, luster, hardness, streak, and cleavage or fracture. These properties provide valuable information for distinguishing one mineral from another.
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