Science Mineral Vocab

Describes the way a mineral reflects light from its surface; can be metallic or nonmetallic.

A property of matter representing the mass per unit volume.

The measure of how easily a miner can be scratched.

A rock that contains enough of a valuable mineral to be mined for a profit.

The physical property of some minerals that causes them to break along smooth, flat surfaces.

The physical property of some minerals that causes them to break with uneven, rough, or jagged surfaces.

A naturally occurring inorganic solid that has a definite chemical composition and an orderly internal atomic structure.

The color of a mineral when it is in powder form.

A solid substance in which the atoms are arranged in an orderly, repeating, three-dimentional pattern.

A substance that cannot be broken down into a simpler substance by ordinary chemical changes.