Article by Guillermo Alba Pino

 The world of rocks and minerals

This unit my class and I have learned a lot about rocks and minerals. About the rocks we have studied their classification into 3 types (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic). We have also learned how they are formed and what they are made of. The ones that have caught my attention the most are sedimentary rocks because they may have fossils of animals or plants that lived many years ago. About minerals, we have studied their characteristics: their colors, their shape and their hardness. For example, turquoise is blue, gold is yellow and quartz can be of various colors.

About the hardness of minerals, I have learned the Mohs Scale, which is a classification that orders them according to their hardness. An example of minerals ordered from softer to hardest would be: 1 talc, 2 gypsum, 3 calcite, 4 fluorite, 5 apatite, 6 ortose, 7 quartz, 8 topaz, 9 corundum, and 10 diamond. From the shape of the minerals, it is curious that they can have different shapes. For example, halite is cubic and aquamarine is hexagonal.

We have also investigated what minerals are used for. They are used for different things as jewelry, making utensils, making electronic devices or as construction material. But there are so many more uses.

To finish a curiosity, did you know that the rarest mineral in the world, Red Beryllium, costs 8 million per gram?