CHAPT ER

How are minerals identied?

The ability to recognize common minerals in hand specimens is basic to much that follows in this
text. The tests that you will become familiar with are exactly the same as those used worldwide
by eld and research geologists, be it in the eld, in the research laboratory, or in the home
ofce. Your course instructor may discuss the various techniques for the unique identication of
a mineral (or several minerals as in a rock) in lectures, but personal expertise can be gained best
by hands-on work that you will likely do in the laboratory that accompanies your course. There
you will have small test samples that you will be allowed to scratch (to test hardness), to hold in
your hand (to heft the specimen so as to assess its average specic gravity), and to evaluate
their reaction to dilute HCl, and so on. Even better is that you will probably also see much
larger, better mineral hand specimens in which you can observe other properties such as crystal
form, habit, cleavage, range of color, and state of aggregation. You will learn to combine these
observations and develop the skills to identify unknown minerals correctly.
Once you know what mineral you are dealing with, or which several minerals, as most common
rocks contain a mix of minerals, you will be well prepared for understanding how rocks are classied
and the conditions under which different rock types (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic)
are formed. For example, once you have identied all four major minerals in a specic, relatively
coarse-grained, light-colored rock as (1) quartz, (2) two types of feldspar, and (3) a mica, you can
conclude that you are dealing with a granite. Such knowledge of common rock-forming minerals is
basic to much of what is presented in this text. The four later chapters that deal with the systematic
mineralogy of igneous rocks (Chapter 7); sedimentary rocks (Chapter 10); metamorphic rocks
(Chapter 13); and ore deposits, coarse-grained pegmatites, and quartz veins (Chapter 15) give
detailed information on the diagnostic properties that allow us to identify minerals.
We introduce you to various observations and tests that can be made of minerals in hand
specimens. In many instances a combination of the results of several of these leads to the
3
Cornelis Klein with a hand specimen of white quartz edged by pink lepidolite (a lithium-containing mica) from the Harding Mine, near Taos, New Mexico. He is
seated in front of an electron microprobe analysis instrument (see Box 3.1 and Sec. 3.8) manufactured by JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, that is located in the Department of
Earth and Planetary Sciences and Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
How are minerals identied? 40
Each of these properties is discussed in this chapter, but it
must be recognized that the actual process of mineral identi-
cation is best learned in the laboratory part of the course you
are enrolled in. There you will tune your observational skills
through the study of labeled mineral specimens as well as un-
knowns. Here, we rst introduce those properties that can be
evaluated by observation only habit, state of aggregation, col-
or, and cleavage and subsequently discuss properties such as
hardness, specic gravity, magnetism, radioactivity, and solu-
bility in hydrochloric acid, all of which require testing tools.
3.1 Habit
If a mineral specimen is well crystallized meaning that it
shows well-developed crystal faces then the crystal form can
be used to help identify the mineral, and we can say that the
crystal form is diagnostic in our mineral identication. The ex-
ternal crystal form is an outward expression of the ordered in-
ternal atomic arrangement. We look at crystal forms and their
inherent symmetry in detail in Chapter 5, but here we concen-
trate on properties that can be assessed without specic knowl-
edge of crystallography.
Various habits are described by different adjectives, and
several of these are described here and illustrated with photo-
graphs in Figure 3.1 .
Prismatic means that the mineral has an elongate habit with
the bounding faces forming a prismlike shape, as is common in
members of the pyroxene and amphibole groups of silicates.
Identication of minerals in hand specimens is the main empha-
sis of this chapter. The methods used are careful visual evaluation
and basic tests with easily available tools. Only at the end of this
chapter do we briey introduce some sophisticated instrumen-
tal methods that are used in the quantitative characterization of
minerals and other crystalline solids. Chapter 6 is devoted to the
study of minerals with a polarizing optical microscope.
The identication of an unknown mineral in a hand specimen
begins with making observations that allow us to assess a speci-
mens overall form (or crystal habit if it is well crystallized),
state of aggregation, and color. Those properties that allow us
to identify a mineral or at least narrow down the possibilities
are said to be diagnostic . Color is probably the rst property
the observer sees, followed by the overall shape of the mineral.
But, though instantly noted, color is not a reliable diagnostic
property in most minerals, because many (chemically variable)
mineral groups exhibit a range of colors.
Important physical properties that characterize a mineral
and allow us to separate one from another in hand specimens
are the following:
Habit
State of aggregation
Color
Luster
Cleavage
Hardness
Specic gravity (or relative density)
identication of the mineral at hand. If not, the use of additional instrumental techniques may
result in a unique identication. The subjects discussed in this chapter are the following:

Habit
State of aggregation
Color and luster

visual observations
Play of color
Chato oy oo ancy, labradorescence, asterism
visual

observations
Fluorescence usinganultraviole ii t light source
Streak usingastreakpl pp ate
Cleavage breakingalongcrystallographi pp c directions; visual observation
Hardness ss
Specific gravity
Magnetism, solubilityinHCl, radioactivity
usingsome test eq

uipm uu ent
Instrumental techniques
X - raypowder diffraction
Electron oo beamtechniques : SEM, EMPA, andTEM

3.2 State of aggregation 41
Columnar exhibits rounded columns, as is common in tour-
maline.
Acicular means needlelike, as is common for natrolite,
a member of the zeolite group. The word is derived from the
Latin word acicula , meaning needle.
Tabular describes crystal masses that are at like a board, as
commonly seen in barite.
Bladed refers to crystal shapes that are elongate and at, as in
a knife blade. Kyanite shows this commonly.
Capillary applies to minerals that form hairlike, or thread-
like, thin crystals, as shown by millerite.
Fibrous refers to threadlike masses, as exhibited by chryso-
tile, the most common mineral included in the commercial
term asbestos (see Fig. 2. 4A).
Dendritic describes minerals that show a treelike branching
pattern, as is common in manganese oxide minerals. The term
is derived from the Greek word dendron , meaning tree.
Foliated refers to a stack of thin leaves or plates that can be
separated from each other, as in mica and graphite.
Massive describes a mineral specimen that is totally devoid
of crystal faces.
3.2 State of aggregation
Most mineral specimens, unless unusually well crystallized, ap-
pear as aggregates of smaller grains. Such occurrences are best
described by some additional adjectives (photographs of the
appearance of several of these are given in Fig. 3.2 ).
Granular applies to rock and mineral specimens that consist
of mineral grains of approximately equal dimensions, as in the
rock dunite, composed essentially of granular olivine grains.
Compact describes a specimen that is so ne-grained that
the state of aggregation is not obvious, as in specimens of clay
minerals, or chert (int).
Banded is said of a mineral specimen that shows bands of
different color or texture but that may or may not differ in min-
eral composition. A banded agate may show various differently
colored bands, but each of the bands is composed of the same
silica, SiO
2
, known as chalcedony. In contrast, banded iron-
formations commonly show banding, on a millimeter scale, of
two or three different minerals, chert (light colored) and hema-
tite (red) and/or magnetite (black).
Mammillary is from the Latin word mamma , meaning
breast, and describes minerals that occur as smoothly round-
ed masses resembling breasts, or portions of spheres. Examples
are goethite and hematite.
Botryoidal is from the Greek word botrys , meaning band
or cluster of grapes or having a surface of spherical shapes.
In a botryoidal appearance, the rounded prominences are gen-
erally of a smaller scale than those described as mammillary.
Common as the outer surface of chalcedony, a microcrystalline
variety of quartz, SiO
2
.
Figure 3.1 Photographic illustrations of many of the mineral habits listed in Section 3.1. (A) Prismatic , as in diopside crystals. (B) Columnar , as in a pink
tourmaline crystal. (C) Acicular (or needlelike) , as in this tufted aggregate of mesolite bers (mesolite is a member of the zeolite group of minerals). (D) A tabular
crystal of barite. (E) A bladed crystal of kyanite. (F) Fibrous celestite . (G) A dendritic pattern of manganese oxide minerals on a at surface of siltstone. (H) Foliated
muscovite as a rosette of crystals.
(A) (B) (D) (C)
(E)
(F) (H)
(G)
How are minerals identied? 42
most minerals color can be variable and as such proves an un-
reliable diagnostic property.
Color is the response of the eye to the visible light range of
the electromagnetic spectrum (Box 3.1 ). Visible light ranges in
wavelength from about 400 to 750 nanometers (where 1 nm =
10 ngstroms, ). White light is a mixture of all these wave-
lengths. The following equation relates the energy of radiation
( E ) to its wavelength ():
E
hc
=

,

(3.1)
where c is the speed of light and h is the Planck constant, which
has a value of 4.135 10
15
electron volts seconds (in SI units:
1.054 10
34
joule seconds). What this equation shows is
that when the wavelength becomes longer, the energy is re-
duced, and when the wavelength becomes shorter, the energy
increases.
When white light strikes a mineral, it may be scattered, or
reected; it may be refracted; and it may be transmitted and
absorbed ( Fig. 3 .4). If almost all of the light is reected and/or
scattered, the mineral will have a luster described as metallic
luster . This is exhibited by the surface of steel, copper, silver,
and gold. Such materials are described as opaque because little
light passes into the mineral. Metallic luster is also shown by
many oxides and suldes (if not tarnished). For example, py-
rite (FeS
2
), galena (PbS), and hematite (Fe
2
O
3
) are all opaque to
light and have a metallic luster ( Fig. 3 .5).
Reniform describes the surface of a mineral aggregate that
resembles that of a kidney. Seen in hematite. Derived from the
Latin wood renis , meaning kidney.
Stalactitic is a term used for a mineral that is made up of
forms like small stalactites. Some limonite occurs this way, as
does rhodochrosite.
Geode is a rock cavity partially lled with minerals. Com-
mon mineral ll is well-crystallized quartz or the purple variety
of quartz, amethyst. Agates may be partly or completely lled
rock cavities, and they may show attractive color banding in the
chalcedony, microcrystalline SiO
2
, that lines the outer cavity.
Oolitic describes the occurrence of mineral grains in round-
ed masses the size of sh roe. Derived from the Greek word
on , meaning egg. This structure may occur in iron ore, made
up mainly of hematite, and known as oolitic iron ore, or in
sedimentary rocks known as oolitic limestone, which consists
of millimeter-size spheres of rhythmically precipitated calcite.
Pisolitic applies to rounded mineral grains the size of a pea.
From the Greek word pisos , meaning pea. Bauxite, a major ore
of aluminum, is commonly pisolitic. Pisolitic grains are larger
than those described as oolitic.
3.3 Color and luster
Of all the physical properties that a mineral possesses, color
is the most easily observed. For some minerals, such as those
shown in Figure 3.3 , color is highly diagnostic. However, in
Figure 3.2 Photographic illustrations of many of the states of aggregation listed in Section 3.2. (A) Granular grains of yellow-green olivine in a volcanic bomb of
dunite (a rock type made up essentially of olivine). (B) Finely banded as in this polished slab of agate. (C) Botryoidal, as shown by the outer, almost-black surface
of chalcedony. (D) Botryoidal goethite. (E) Reniform hematite . (F) A geode with an outer lining of slightly blue chalcedony and a cavity lined with milky white,
translucent quartz crystals. (G) Oolitic and pisolitic limestones . (H) Pisolitic bauxite .
(A) (B) (D) (C)
(E) (F) (H)
(G)