Exam 2: Atoms, Elements, and Minerals

It is clear that exposure to white asbestos causes cancer among non-smoking asbestos workers.

Non-silicate minerals are more abundant in the deeper parts of Earth's crust than in the crust as a whole.

Non-silicate minerals include the halides like _____.

Minerals that have the same chemical composition but have different crystalline structures exhibit polymorphism

The quality and intensity of light that is reflected from the surface of a mineral is termed luster.

The ______ group of minerals is characterized by two parallel chains of silica tetrahedra in their structure.

The most common minerals in the Earth's crust are the _______.

The atomic mass number is equal to the number of neutrons in an atom.

The innermost energy level in the standard model of an atom is full when it possesses eight electrons.

____, a Danish naturalist, was the first to note that the angle between two adjacent faces of a crystal of quartz is always exactly the same.

_______ and sapphire are both varieties of the common mineral corundum.

The common mineral ___ is an example of an isolated silica tetrahedron structure.

Silica is a term for oxygen combined with silicon.

The mineral ___ is strongly magnetic.

A pulverized mineral (usually on a piece of white unglazed porcelain) gives a color called its ____, that is usually more reliable than the color of the specimen itself.

Color is the least reliable physical property in mineral identification.

______ is an expansive (swells when wet) clay mineral.

Rocks are defined as naturally-formed aggregates of minerals or mineral-like substances.

Clay minerals are very common in the Earth's upper mantle.

When seawater evaporates, its sodium and chlorine are electronically attracted to one another and crystallize into ___.