Lecture
(Dino Defense HQ, © 2011 The LEGO Group)
Did you, a brother, or sister ever play with Legos building blocks when you were growing up? Well, minerals are like the Legos of Earth. In geologic terms, they are the smallest “pieces” of which Earth materials are made. Some minerals represent pure members of the periodic table (such as gold) but most minerals represent a chemical combination of elements.
Just like Lego blocks can be assembled into buildings, forts, or even dinosaurs, minerals combine together to form rocks. Rocks are formed when a bunch of different minerals stick together. It is very rare that rocks are formed out of one mineral entirely, so you can think of a rock as a collection or aggregate of minerals. Oftentimes, we can’t see minerals in the rocks but they are there, even in those tiny bits of rocks that make up our soils. Other times, they are big enough for you to see with your eye like the large crystals you see in granite countertops. On rare occasions, crystals grow large enough to become valuable or appealing to humans.
This lecture is divided up into three components:
- Minerals: We’ll learn how minerals form and what minerals are most common, and how minerals form rocks.
- Rocks: We’ll revisit the Rock Cycle and put it into the context of Plate Tectonics.
- Indiana Resources: We’ll learn the minerals and rocks of Indiana.