| A | B |
|---|
| lithosphere | the solid portion of the Earth's crust |
| rock | naturally formed material made of one or more minerals |
| monomineralistic | a rock composed of only one mineral |
| polymineralistic | a rock composed of more than one mineral |
| rock-formers | about a dozen minerals that make up more than 90% of the lithosphere |
| elements | composed of atoms which cannot be reduced to simpler substances |
| physical and chemical properties | used to identify minerals |
| hardness | the resistance of a mineral to being scratched |
| Mohs' Scale of Hardness | list of 10 minerals in order of hardness with 1 being the softest (talc) and 10 the hardest (diamond) |
| streak | the color of the powder of a mineral when crushed or scratched across a streak plate |
| luster | the appearance of light reflected from a mineral's surface |
| cleavage | a mineral's ability to break along one or more smooth planes |
| fracture | a mineral that has no well-defined cleavage and ususally breaks with uneven, splintery, or jagged surface |
| crystal | external geometric form of a mineral that results from its internal atomic structure |
| specific gravity | the ratio of weight of a mineral sample to the weight of an equal volume of water |
| crystalline | the atoms inside a mineral are bonded in a particular structure or pattern |
| silicates | minerals containing both oxygen and silicon |
| igneous rock | formed from the solidfication and crystallization fo molten rock |
| solidification | making the rocks solid, compact, and/or hard |
