Introducing Rocks & Minerals

In our modern world where we practically live in nests of technologies, there are things we simply take for granted without even noticing it. Good examples are rocks and minerals. Okay. Maybe we care more about minerals more than rocks. You know, with jewelries and stuff. But you have to admit that most of us hardly give deep attention on these things. For instance, how many people can actually say they care about how rocks are formed?  Or where minerals came from? Well, let me tell you that there’s not many of them.

Nowadays, it’s always about high-tech this and high-tech that. How can a rock, or even a mineral, compete with that, right? I mean, not unless someone invents a gadget of some sort made of gold or diamonds, I don’t think we’ll even consider giving much value on these things. 

And yet apparently I think I spoke too soon because someone had made a ‘Golden Gadget’! It’s Apple! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! And if you’re wondering if the iPods (Limited Edition Gold iPod Touch & iPod Classic Diamonds Edition) or laptops (24 Carat Gold MacBook Air) in the images are real, they are. 

 

Now let’s move past these ‘techie’ things for a while (though I feel it’ll be hard for some of us) and perhaps focus our minds on learning something new! Let’s talk about Rocks and Minerals! Alright, I know it sounds lame or something specially after seeing luxury gadgets at its finest, but hang in there. Maybe you’ll gain knowledge over the things I’ll be talking about.  

 

What are minerals anyway? A mineral is a naturally occurring inorganic solid usually crystalline in nature. They are characterized by a specific chemical composition while they also possess specific geometries on an atomic level. Their physical properties are also invariant irrespective of the region from which they are excavated or prepared. And as of today, there are about 3,000 known minerals on the planet Earth.

 

Minerals are divided into seven types, based on the type of crystal that they form. Carbonates have a central carbon atom covalently bonded to three oxygen atoms and ionically bonded to one or more positive ions. Halides combine a halogen atom with atoms of a more electropositive element. Oxides are composed of negative oxygen ions bonded to one or more positive metallic ions. Silicates are compounds of silicon and oxygen with other elements or minerals. Sulfates comprise positive sulfur ions bonded to negative oxygen ions, while sulfides comprise negative sulfur ions bonded to positive metallic ions. Finally there are natural elements, which are minerals that exist in relatively pure form.

What about rocks? Well rocks, on the other hand, are hard natural materials of mineral origin. Different kinds of rocks make up the crust of our planet Earth. A rock is defined as an aggregate of mineral grains, which means that rocks are a bunch of minerals all stuck together. The mineral grains may be large enough to be seen with the naked eye (phaneritic) or microscopic (aphanitic). Though let’s not get confused with the relationship of rocks and minerals just yet. Because you see, all rocks are made of two or more minerals, but minerals are not made of rocks. A mineral is the same all the way through unlike rocks. However a rock might not be comprised of only minerals and can also be a concoction of other substances and hence the best definition of a rock would be an indeterminate mixture of naturally occurring substance, majorly minerals.

 

The three types of rocks are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. Igneous rocks form when molten rock, or magma, cools and hardens. Sedimentary rocks result from erosion of any rock type, followed by depositing the resulting sediment into a natural basin, and finally cementing the sediment into stone. Metamorphic rocks form when any rock is subjected to great heat and pressure, but not enough heat to melt the rock.

A rock can begin as one type and can change many times. In fact, rocks are always changing. However, the changes happen so slowly that they are difficult to see. We have seen above that heat and pressure can change rocks which then break down by weathering and move by erosion. It can take thousands of years for rocks to weather and erode. This process of changing is called the rock cycle.

 

To be honest, studying rocks and minerals are fascinating. We’ve always been surrounded with these things; we just don’t take the time to take a closer look at them. And as much as learning about rocks and minerals, we can also draw inspiration from them. If you’re a fan of western comics then just think about Marvel’s Fantastic Four! Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (creator of The Thing) took their vision of creating a superhero made of rocks. How cool is that? And if you know about The Thing, then I’m sure you are also familiar with The Silver Surfer. This character, made entirely out of silver (mineral), was also created by Stan Lee but this time with the help of artist, John Buscema. And it’s all because of being observant in the environment we’re in. Now I call that fantastic creativity. ‘Til next time… 

 

I hope you learned new things from my blog. And wherever this pursuit of knowledge takes me, you can expect that it’s going to be about science; and it’s going to be fun! 

ERICSON OUT.

P.S. If you have queries regarding the subjects I’ve posted, feel free to ask and I’ll share my time to help you out. All these information I'm sharing with you comes from my Natural Sciences class provided by my professor, Mr. Crisencio Paner. And if you’re interested in learning more about rocks and minerals, click here.
  

*Checked by Mr. Crisencio Paner.