File:Copper-silver glacial cobble (Mesoproterozoic, 1.05-1.06 Ga; Michigan, USA) 2 (17108536950).jpg

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Copper-silver glacial cobble from Michigan, USA. (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)

A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substrance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 4900 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.

Elements are fundamental substances of matter - matter that is composed of the same types of atoms. At present, 118 elements are known (four of them are still unnamed). Of these, 98 occur naturally on Earth (hydrogen to californium). Most of these occur in rocks & minerals, although some occur in very small, trace amounts. Only some elements occur in their native elemental state as minerals.

To find a native element in nature, it must be relatively non-reactive and there must be some concentration process. Metallic, semimetallic (metalloid), and nonmetallic elements are known in their native state as minerals.

Copper is the only metallic element that has a "reddish" color - it’s actually a metallic orange color. Most metallic elements, apart from gold & copper, are silvery-gray colored. Copper tends to form sharp-edged, irregular, twisted masses of moderately high density. It is moderately soft, but is extremely difficult to break. It has no cleavage and has a distinctive hackly fracture.

The Michigan rock shown above is a cobble of native copper mixed with native silver. The greenish material is a surficial alteration coating of malachite. This cobble was transported by glaciers during the Pleistocene Ice Age from its original location in Portage Lake Volcanic Series bedrock (= the host rock for most of northern Michigan's copper). The original copper-silver mineralization age is 1.05 to 1.06 billion years old (late Mesoproterozoic).
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Source Copper-silver glacial cobble (Mesoproterozoic, 1.05-1.06 Ga; Michigan, USA) 2
Author James St. John

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by jsj1771 at https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/17108536950. It was reviewed on 3 May 2015 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

3 May 2015

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