Minerals and Dietary Supplements Quiz

Minerals Overview

• Naturally occurring crystalline solids essential for life.
• Dietary supplements contain human-made inorganic compounds derived from minerals in the Earth’s crust.
• Vitamins are organic compounds produced by living organisms.

Definitions and Characteristics

• Inorganic Processes: Result from the burial of organic materials leading to the formation of minerals like salts and calcium carbonate.
• Crystal Structure: Atoms must be arranged in a definite pattern, illustrated by quartz.
• Chemical Composition: Minerals consist of two or more elements; approximately 4,000 known minerals exist.

Element Composition in Earth's Crust

• Oxygen and silicon are the two most abundant elements, constituting over 90% of Earth’s crust minerals.
• Common elemental composition by mass includes:
  • Oxygen: 40%
  • Silicon: 27.7%
  • Aluminum: 8.1%
  • Iron: 6.0%
  • Calcium: 3.6%
  • Sodium: 2.8%
  • Potassium: 3.4%
  • Magnesium: 2.1%
  • Other Elements: 6.3%

Mineral Must-Haves

• Must be naturally occurring, solid, and inorganic.
• Have a definite chemical composition with a well-defined crystalline structure.

Physical Properties of Minerals

• Luster: Depends on how light reflects on a mineral's surface.

  • Types of luster include:
    • Metallic (e.g., galena, pyrite)
    • Non-metallic (e.g., silky gypsum, vitreous silica)

• Hardness: Mineral's resistance to scratching, determined by its composition and crystal structure.

  • The Mohs Scale of Hardness ranks minerals from 1 to 10, based on scratch resistance.

Testing Hardness

• Scratch tests assess mineral hardness.
• Practical for field geologists; however, it’s qualitative rather than quantitative.

Color and Streak

• Color: Not the most reliable for identifying minerals due to impurities.
• Streak: The color of a mineral in powdered form used to distinguish types (e.g., metallic vs. non-metallic).

Crystal Form and Habit

• Refers to the overall shape and dimensions of crystals—length, width, height.
• Common crystal shapes include:
  • Acicular (needle-like)
  • Dendritic (plant-like)
  • Reniform (kidney-shaped)
  • Prismatic (elongated in one direction)

Key Metallic Minerals in the Philippines

• Gold deposits in Camarines Norte.
• Copper-gold deposits in Benguet.
• Chromite and other mineral deposits in the Zamboanga del Norte region.

Key Nonmetallic Minerals in the Philippines

• Limestone deposits in Pangasinan.
• Rare black and green marbles in various regions.