• Common Rock-Forming Minerals.

The most common

rock-forming minerals are :

• quartz,
• feldspar,
• mica,
• pyroxene,
• amphibole,
• and olivine.

• All of the following silicate minerals, except for quartz,

are mineral groups.
• Quartz has a chemical composition of SiO2.

• It is a glassy-looking hard substance with white streaks.

• Despite its hardness, with a Mohs hardness of 7, it is

quite brittle. Pure quartz is clear and transparent.

• Colored varieties of quartz are due to elemental

impurities built into its lattice. The grains of quartz, in
general, are irregular in shape.
• What is quartz used for?

• From Jewelry making and gemstones, for its ability to

luster, to brick making in the refractory industry for
its physical strength and to watches and clocks for
its piezoelectric property, quartz find uses in a wide
range of industries.
• Is quartz a rock or stone?

• Quartz is a major component of many types of rock.

• Quartz is abundant in certain igneous rocks.

• It forms the clear to grey or even white lumpy blobs in granite

and comprise most of silicate-rich or felsic igneous rocks.

• It is absent or rare in more primitive basic or silica-poor

igneous rocks such as basalt.
•
• Stone is smaller than rock. To easily sum it up, rock is made out of
stone and mineral matter. The stone used to make your countertops
was cut from rock. Rocks are typically found in the earth's crust.

• Rocks are hard materials that are found on the earth's crust.

• The rocks can be found above the ground as well as below the
ground.

• Stones are non-metallic minerals.

• A stone is formed from rocks after it has been trimmed or dressed or

polished into tiny pieces.
• Feldspar has a chemical composition of X Al (1−2) Si (3−2)
O8, where X is K, Ca, or Na.

• It is quite hard with a Mohs hardness of 6.

• It is a light-colored material, usually white, but they can have

lighter shades of red or green.

• It has a glassy luster. In rocks, feldspar forms rectangular

crystals that break along flat faces.
• What are the characteristics of feldspar?

• Feldspars usually are white or nearly white, though

they may be clear or light shades of orange or buff.

• They usually have a glassy luster. Feldspar is called a

rock-forming mineral, very common, and usually makes
up a large part of the rock.
• What is feldspar used for?

• Feldspars are used as fluxing agents(usually oxides,

used in glasses,) to form a glassy phase at low
temperatures and as a source of alkalis and alumina
in glazes.

• They improve the strength, toughness, and durability of

the ceramic body, and cement the crystalline phase of
other ingredients, softening, melting and wetting other
batch constituents.
• Mica

• is any group of hydrous potassium aluminum silicate minerals.

• The most common examples are clear muscovite and black

biotite.

• Mica is soft, with Mohs hardness ranging from 2 to 2.5. It is easily

identified by its perfect cleavage, reducing it to thin smooth flakes.

• Its shine is responsible for the flashes of light in rocks such as

granite and slate.
• What is mica used for?

• Mica is a naturally occurring mineral dust often used in makeup

foundations, as filler in cement and asphalt, and as
insulation material in electric cables.

• What are mica rocks used for?

• Its primary use is in glass making.

• When added to the melted glass, lepidolite acts as an opacifier
in opalescent and white glass that is widely used for table tops
and jars. It also enhances the strength of the glass.
• Pyroxene

• minerals have a general composition of XY (Al, Si)2 O6

where X is Ca or Mg and Y is either Mg, Fe, Al.

• Augite is the most common of this group.

• It has a glassy luster with streaks of white, light green, or

light brown. It is generally black in color and has stubby
prismatic crystals.

• Its key feature is its two cleavages at around 90° .

• Pyroxenes are common in meteorites and in extrusive
igneous rocks, especially basalt.

• Pyroxenes are the most significant and abundant group

of rock-forming ferromagnesium silicates.

• They are found in almost every variety of igneous rock.

• They also form under conditions of regional and contact

metamorphism.
• What is pyroxene used for?

• Pyroxene minerals are minor to secondary components of

some rocks that are used as crushed stone and dimension
stone.

• A few pyroxene minerals are used as gem materials, but only

in rare instances when they have attractive color and clarity.

• Jadeite, diopside, and spodumene are the most important

pyroxene gem materials.
• Amphibole

• has a dark color with a Mohs hardness ranging from 5 to

6.

• Hornblende is the most common amphibole.

• It has a glassy luster and an opaque characteristic. Its

crystals are very long and very thin.
• What is amphibole used for?

• It is used as paving stones and as a veneer or facing on

buildings (both for interior and exterior use).

• It is also used as crushed stone for the usual crushed

stone applications such as road and railroad bed
construction.

• In this application it is used locally, near the source of the

amphibolite
• Olivine

• is a silicate mineral with a general chemical composition of (Mg,

Fe)2 SiO4, but calcium, manganese, and nickel can be
substituted for magnesium and iron.

• It is known for its distinct olive-green color and commonly used in

the gemstone industry as peridot.

• It is a glassy looking and transparent substance that is almost as

hard as quartz.

• Its crystals have a granular shape.

• What is olivine used for?

• Most olivine is used in metallurgical strategies as a slag

conditioner.

• High-magnesium olivine (forsterite) is introduced to blast furnaces

to take away impurities from metallic and to shape a slag.

• Olivine has also been used as a refractory material.

• It is used to make refractory brick and used as a casting sand.

• What is meant by refractory brick?

• Refractory materials are those that can withstand high

temperatures without the heat damaging their structure,
resistance, or thermal conductivity.

• In the case of bricks, the chemical composition of refractories

is different from that of regular bricks, which also influences
their color and thermal conductivity.
• Rocks are classified according to how they are formed.

• 1. Igneous rocks are formed by the cooling or solidification of

magma or lava.

• Igneous rocks are further classified as intrusive or extrusive

igneous based on grain size.

• Igneous rocks form when magma (molten rock) cools and

crystallizes, either at volcanoes on the surface of the Earth or
while the melted rock is still inside the crust.

• All magma develops underground, in the lower crust or upper

mantle, because of the intense heat there.
• Intrusive rocks, or plutonic rocks, are igneous rocks formed
underneath the earth.

• They are coarse-grained due to the slow cooling of magma allowing

crystal growth. •

• Intrusive rocks, also called plutonic rocks, cool slowly without ever
reaching the surface.

• They have large crystals that are usually visible without a microscope.

• This surface is known as a phaneritic texture.

• Perhaps the best-known phaneritic rock is granite.

• Extrusive rocks, or volcanic rocks, are igneous rocks formed on the
surface of the earth.

• They are cooled lava, which are molten rocks ejected on the surface
through volcanic eruptions.

• They are fine-grained due to abrupt cooling on the surface. Igneous

rocks can also be classified based on grain size, general
composition, and percentage mineral composition.

• The four general compositions of igneous rocks– lightcolored or

felsic, intermediate, darkcolored mafic, and ultramafic
• Extrusive rocks are formed on the surface of the
Earth from lava, which is magma that has emerged
from underground. Intrusive rocks are formed from
magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of the
planet.

• Extrusive rock refers to the mode of

igneous volcanic rock formation in which hot magma
from inside the Earth flows out (extrudes) onto the
surface as lava or explodes violently into the
atmosphere to fall back as pyroclastics or tuff.
• What are the example of extrusive rocks?

• Types of extrusive igneous rocks include:

• pumice,
• obsidian,
• andesite,
• rhyolite, and basalt.
• 2. Sedimentary Rocks

• Sedimentary rocks are formed from pre-existing

rocks or pieces of once-living organisms.

• They form from deposits that accumulate on the Earth's

surface. Sedimentary rocks often have distinctive
layering or bedding.
• Sedimentary rocks are classified into clastic or non-clastic.

• • Clastic sedimentary rocks are made up of sediments from

preexisting rocks.

• Clastic sedimentary rocks are the group of rocks most

people think of when they think of sedimentary rocks.

• Clastic sedimentary rocks are made up of pieces (clasts)

of pre-existing rocks.

• Pieces of rock are loosened by weathering, then transported

to some basin or depression where sediment is trapped.
• Examples include: breccia, conglomerate,
sandstone, siltstone, and shale.
• • Non-clastic sedimentary rocks can be biological, chemical,
or a combination of both.

• Biological sedimentary rocks are lithified accumulation of

dead organisms.

• Examples include coal - (formed from carbon-rich plants) and

limestone (formed from the remains of calcareous organisms).

• On the other hand, chemical sedimentary rocks are from

chemical precipitation.

• An example is rock salt formed when dissolved salts

precipitate from a solution.
• Non-clastic textures are found chiefly in rocks that have
precipitated chemically from water (chemical sedimentary
rocks), such as limestone, dolomite and chert.

• Other non-clastic sedimentary rocks include those formed

by organisms (biochemical rocks), and those formed from
organic material, such as coal.

• Examples include rock salt, dolomites, flint, iron

ore, chert, and some limestone.