Unit E Section 2 Introduction The Earth's Crust: Rocks and Minerals
Completion requirements
Section 2: The properties of rocks and minerals tells us much about the Earth's crust.
Unit E: Section 2 – Introduction
Figure E.S.2.1 – A magnifying glass is a handy tool for geologists studying rocks and minerals.
Figure E.S.2.2 – Rocks and minerals occur in all shapes, sizes, and colours.
Rocks and Minerals
What do you think of when you read the words “rocks and minerals”? Is it the gravel that you ride your bicycle on when you visit a local park? Or maybe it’s the red shale that stains your white socks when you play softball? Or do you think of minerals when you read the ingredients of the cereal you eat for breakfast?
All these are examples of rocks and minerals. But did you know that the bicycle frame, a softball bat, and the toothpaste that cleans your teeth after breakfast can be made from rocks and minerals? Even the salt on the sunflower seeds you eat at the softball game comes from rocks! Humans spend many hours and large amounts of money digging in Earth’s crust, refining what they dig, and manufacturing stuff using the products of these rocks and minerals.
This section examines rocks and minerals. The various groups of rocks and minerals are similar and yet different. Important processes allow each group to change and cycle from one type to the next.
Just as Earth is always changing, its rocks and minerals are being weathered, eroded, deposited, melted, compacted, and changed into new forms.
What do you think of when you read the words “rocks and minerals”? Is it the gravel that you ride your bicycle on when you visit a local park? Or maybe it’s the red shale that stains your white socks when you play softball? Or do you think of minerals when you read the ingredients of the cereal you eat for breakfast?
All these are examples of rocks and minerals. But did you know that the bicycle frame, a softball bat, and the toothpaste that cleans your teeth after breakfast can be made from rocks and minerals? Even the salt on the sunflower seeds you eat at the softball game comes from rocks! Humans spend many hours and large amounts of money digging in Earth’s crust, refining what they dig, and manufacturing stuff using the products of these rocks and minerals.
This section examines rocks and minerals. The various groups of rocks and minerals are similar and yet different. Important processes allow each group to change and cycle from one type to the next.
Just as Earth is always changing, its rocks and minerals are being weathered, eroded, deposited, melted, compacted, and changed into new forms.
Figure E.S.2.3 – Rocks form, change, and become new rocks in a never-ending cycle. Image by
Siyavula Education.
Words to Think About:
Check out the word cloud below. It pictures the important words that you are going to learn in this section. Watch for these words, and combinations of these words, as you read. When you see them highlighted, you can click on them to learn more about
what the word means.
You can also visit the course glossary and read definitions for all of these words.
Lessons in This Section
Lesson E6: Properties of Rocks and Minerals
Key Question - What properties help to identify unknown rocks and minerals?
Lesson E7: Alberta's Fossil Fuels
Key Question - How are Alberta’s oil, gas, and coal resources related to rocks and minerals?
Lesson E8: Rock Classification
Key Question - What are the three main classes of rocks?
Lesson E9: The Rock Cycle
Key Question - How do Earth processes recycle rocks?
Reading and Materials for This Section
Science in Action 7
Reading: Pages Pages 368-391
Materials Lists for Unit:
Try It!
Mining Your Breakfast
This is an activity you can attempt. You can repeat it multiple times using various cereals.
Many foods are enriched with minerals and vitamins for our health. This means that food companies add important nutrients to some of our foods to ensure we have healthy diets. One mineral that people need in their normal diet is iron. Without enough iron in your diet, you might feel tired because your blood cannot carry oxygen effectively throughout your body. Iron occurs naturally in meat, beans, and leafy greens. However, because not everyone eats foods high in iron as a part of their normal diet, iron is added to foods such as breads and cereals.
Materials:
This is an activity you can attempt. You can repeat it multiple times using various cereals.
Many foods are enriched with minerals and vitamins for our health. This means that food companies add important nutrients to some of our foods to ensure we have healthy diets. One mineral that people need in their normal diet is iron. Without enough iron in your diet, you might feel tired because your blood cannot carry oxygen effectively throughout your body. Iron occurs naturally in meat, beans, and leafy greens. However, because not everyone eats foods high in iron as a part of their normal diet, iron is added to foods such as breads and cereals.
Materials:
- cereal (high in iron)
- plastic bag
- strong magnet
Instructions:
1. When you check the ingredients of a dry breakfast cereal, you will see several ingredients listed with a “% Daily Value”. That percentage is the “daily recommended amount” of each ingredient in a serving of the product -- the part of your total need that one serving provides. Find a breakfast cereal that has a high percentage of the daily requirement of iron. Aim for a cereal with 30% or higher. This means that one serving of this cereal give 30% of the iron you need in a healthy diet.
2. Place 1 cup of this cereal into a plastic bag that has a zip closure, remove as much air as you can, and seal the bag. Crush the cereal by pounding carefully on the bag or by using a rolling pin to pulverize the cereal inside. The better you crush the cereal, the better your Try It! will work.
3. Open the bag and add 1 cup of water. Seal the bag again and mix well the crushed cereal and water mixture. This is science: do not eat your experiment! Seriously, this is an experiment, and safety is always important in science.
1. When you check the ingredients of a dry breakfast cereal, you will see several ingredients listed with a “% Daily Value”. That percentage is the “daily recommended amount” of each ingredient in a serving of the product -- the part of your total need that one serving provides. Find a breakfast cereal that has a high percentage of the daily requirement of iron. Aim for a cereal with 30% or higher. This means that one serving of this cereal give 30% of the iron you need in a healthy diet.
2. Place 1 cup of this cereal into a plastic bag that has a zip closure, remove as much air as you can, and seal the bag. Crush the cereal by pounding carefully on the bag or by using a rolling pin to pulverize the cereal inside. The better you crush the cereal, the better your Try It! will work.
3. Open the bag and add 1 cup of water. Seal the bag again and mix well the crushed cereal and water mixture. This is science: do not eat your experiment! Seriously, this is an experiment, and safety is always important in science.
NOTE: If possible, ask for permission and supervision to use a food processor or blender to blend 1 cup or cereal with 1 cup of water before pouring it into the plastic bag. This is a very effective way to release all the ingredients of the cereal.4. Bring the strong magnet to the plastic bag and move it slowly around the outside surface of the bag. You should notice some small black specs gathering inside the bag near the magnet.
Questions:
Think about the following questions very carefully. Then, type or write your answers. When you have your answers, click the questions for feedback.
Think about the following questions very carefully. Then, type or write your answers. When you have your answers, click the questions for feedback.
The black specks are tiny pieces of iron! We know this because they are attracted to the magnet.
To measure the actual amount of iron in the bag, you must remove it from the cereal mixture and weigh it. Perhaps you could weigh the magnet first, stir the cereal mixture with the magnet to grab all the iron pieces, then re-weigh the magnet and see how
much the weight increased. (You need a very accurate scale for this!)
Several other minerals are in the cereal shown: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc are all minerals that we need in our diets.
Minerals, Minerals Everywhere!
We use minerals in many ways. Sometimes the minerals are hidden, and we do not realize they are there. Other times, we try to find them because of their value or importance. All these minerals are in the rocks and soils around us. Learn more in this section about these rocks and minerals, including how we find them and how we use them.
We use minerals in many ways. Sometimes the minerals are hidden, and we do not realize they are there. Other times, we try to find them because of their value or importance. All these minerals are in the rocks and soils around us. Learn more in this section about these rocks and minerals, including how we find them and how we use them.