Under What Conditions Can Minerals Grow to Form Well-defined Crystal Shapes

Amethyst crystals from Brazil
Click on prototype for total size
Courtesy of Corel Photography

What Is a Mineral?

Minerals are the building blocks of rocks. They are non-living, solid, and, like all matter, are made of atoms of elements. There are many dissimilar types of minerals and each blazon is made of particular groups of atoms. The atoms are arranged in a network called a crystal lattice. The lattice of atoms is what gives a mineral its crystal shape.

Different types of minerals have different crystal shapes. Most minerals tin grow into crystal shapes if they have enough space as they grow. But there are oftentimes so many dissimilar crystals growing in the same picayune area that they all compete for space and none of the crystals is able to grow very large.

There are 2 main ways that new crystals of minerals grow. Some minerals form when molten rock, called magma beneath a planet�s surface and lava to a higher place, cools and atoms bond together into mineral crystals. Other minerals form when water that has atoms of dissolved elements in information technology, evaporates away. The atoms get very shut to each other and may bond together to class solid minerals.

The special shapes of minerals are not the only difference between them. Minerals can be identified by other physical backdrop every bit well. Each type of mineral has its own special characteristics.

Last modified January 24, 2008 by Lisa Gardiner.

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Source: https://www.windows2universe.org/earth/geology/min_intro.html