Curious about Minerals & Crystals?

Although quartz is one of the most abundant minerals, it can also be one of the most beautiful and fascinating.

A mineral is a naturally occurring inorganic solid, with a definite chemical composition, and an ordered atomic arrangement. Crystals are the building blocks of minerals. This is a good start, but so much more needs to be said about minerals and crystals and their properties. They have unique symmetries, structures, angles, faces, and formulas.

Minerals are classified into seven categories:

• Silicates.

• Oxides.

• Sulfates.

• Sulfides.

• Carbonates.

• Native Elements.

• Halides

Crystal structure results from the orderly geometric spatial arrangement of atoms in the internal structure of a mineral. This crystal structure is based on regular internal atomic or ionic arrangement that is often expressed in the geometric form that the crystal takes. Even when the mineral grains, i.e. crystals, are too small to see or are irregularly shaped, the underlying crystal structure is always periodic and can be determined by X-Ray diffraction. Crystals are typically described by their symmetry content. Crystals are classified into 32 point groups, which differ by their symmetry. These groups are classified in turn into more broad categories, the most encompassing of these being the six crystal families.

I will expand on this soon!