Minerals Study Guide Resources

websites that can help you prepare your minerals exam study guide:

• geology.com/minerals
  
  
• regentsprep.org

Bonus

Bonus: the first five students from each class to e-mail Mr. B with "coelophysis ate my homework" will receive a 5 point bonus on their 1st marking period grade.

This offer expires at 8pm EST on Tuesday, October 26.

The Mineral Detective

Your recent assignment asked that you research a mineral

This website helps you answer some basic questions:

- What are minerals?
- What are the physical characteristics of your assigned mineral?
- Where is your assigned mineral found as a natural resource?
- How is your assigned mineral used once it is mined from the earth?

Minerals in Afghanistan

New York Times, June 13, 2010
WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe...

Bronx Zoo Erratics & Striations

Giant boulders (remember that “boulder” is a size) can be found throughout the Bronx and New York City. These boulders are called erratics.

Erratics do not look like the rock that you’d find if you dug down into the ground (this kind of rock is called “bedrock”). Some erratic are so big that they cannot easily be moved, even with a truck. In the past, you either had to work around them, or blow them up if you wanted to build a road or houses.

ð What are these boulders? Where did they come from?

Another mystery is the presence of long scratch marks or “grooves” in sections where bedrock is exposed. These are called striations. Striations are cut into the solid rock in the same direction in many areas in the New York City area and can also be found hundreds of mile North. All of them are parallel (they line up in the same direction).

ð What are these strange grooves? Why do they all point in the same direction?

One place where you can find many such erratics and striations is the Bronx Zoo.

At the Zoo, a look at the grizzly bear area reveals a particularly large area of exposed rock with striations cut into the rock and many erratics as well.

Just outside of the now-closed World of Darkness exhibit building is a large erratic called the Rocking Stone. The Rocking Stone was once balanced so finely that the force of one or two men could make it wobble. It rocked, but it didnt move.Fearing that one day someone was going to rock the Rocking Stone a bit too far, Zoo officials shored up its base in 1959

This thing went to space

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/homemade_spacecraft.html

Mineral Properties Quiz

How well do you know your mineral properties?

Take this quiz to find out