1. Down to Earth

2. The Restless Planet

3. Earth's Interior

4. The Sea Floor

5. The Birth of a Theory

6. Plate Dynamics

7. Mountain Building

8. Earth's Structures

9. Earthquakes

10. Geologic Time

11. Evolution Through Time

12. Minerals: The Materials of Earth

13. Volcanism

14. Intrusive Igneous Rocks

15. Weathering and Soils

16. Mass Wasting

17. Sedimentary Rocks: The Key to Past Environments

18. Metamorphic Rocks

19. Running Water I: Rivers, Erosion and Deposition

20. Running Water II: Landscape Evolution

21. Groundwater

22. Wind, Dust and Deserts

23. Glaciers

24. Waves, Beaches and Coasts

25. Living With Earth, Part I

26. Living With Earth, Part II

Episode 12. Minerals: The Materials of Earth

There are five characteristics that are required for a substance to be considered a mineral. Describe them.

• Natural:
• Solid:
• Inorganic:
• Specific chemical (elemental) composition:
• Regular internal crystalline structure:

What are rocks?

How are minerals like fossils?

What are some of the common rock forming minerals?

How can the growth of a mineral be compared to the construction of a block wall?

Why is quartz harder than steel?

What is cleavage?

How does the cleavage of feldspar differ from the cleavage of mica?

What is one easy way to distinguish calcite from quartz?

What happens when you drop acid on a carbonate mineral (or rock)?

How deep in the crust were the granitic rocks of the Whipple Mountains formed?

Discuss diamonds and graphite. What makes them so different?

Discuss hydrothermal solutions and the precipitation of metallic minerals.

What is the origin of most hydrothermal solutions?

Discuss the formation of ore minerals.

Discuss the importance of the silicate minerals (this is very important)

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