Today we will talk about what minerals are. Their properties and applications will also be considered. Industry is actively developing in our country. This is necessary in order to improve the standard of living. To do this, we need more and more resources and materials. Most of these raw materials are mined by man from the bowels of the planet Earth. The well-being of all mankind depends on its reserves. Children study the properties of minerals in the classroom (Grade 3). Apparently, the state wants to grow competent ecologists and power engineers! It will be good for our planet.
What is this?
Almost everyone knows what minerals are. The properties of these resources tell us that they are mined from the bowels of the earth. These raw materials can be solid (mineral), liquid (oil) and even gaseous (natural gas). All fossils are called useful. And this means that the substances extracted by man are beneficial. What properties of minerals do you know?
Acute problem
It would seem that there is nothing complicated in this matter. We know a lot about resources such as minerals. We studied the properties, application and composition of these gifts of nature back inschool. However, there is a fine line that is associated with understanding what is useful to a person. Many eras and centuries passed before our ancestors were able to understand the usefulness of the stone found on the banks of the river. For a very long time they learned how to process this find so that it could be used as a digging stick.
It took a long time before a person realized that under his feet, in the earth's crust, there is a myriad of reserves of ore, minerals and other useful raw materials. For several centuries, people have been extracting minerals and using them for their own benefit. A difficult problem arises: when a person raises all these fossils to the surface, the interior of the Earth is depleted. All this leads to a violation of the geological structure, the earth's surface is overloaded with products of fossil processing, as well as waste generated during their processing. Every year this environmental problem becomes more acute, people are forced to look for new ways to extract and process minerals.
Classification
Minerals, the properties and application of which we will consider in the framework of this article, have a large number of classifications. Let's look at them in detail. So, geologists have identified:
- fossil fuels;
- metal ores;
- colored stones;
- building fossils.
Colored stones
Colored miners are a special family of hard materials. He was considered usefulfossil. They are not used as fuel, they are not used to obtain various metals or any products of the production of chemical raw materials. They are divided into two groups:
- Transparent minerals are precious stones or gems. For example: emerald, aquamarine, diamond, topaz, ruby, amethyst and others.
- opaque minerals or semi-precious and ornamental stones. For example: malachite, pearl, amber, jasper, agate, lapis lazuli and so on.
Let's take a closer look at precious and semi-precious stones. Diamond is of interest to most gemstone miners. It got its name from the Greek word "adamas", which means "indestructible". Indeed, this is the hardest mineral in nature, which means that it is used not only in jewelry, but also in the main technical production. Diamond is used for polishing and grinding various hard substances. It is used for drilling very deep wells. Especially hard drills are made from the mineral. Metals are also processed with the help of diamond. Hard incisors are made from stone.
Today, scientists have achieved that they can get diamonds artificially, but they are used for technical purposes. Chemists have come to the conclusion that the composition of diamond is carbon. It's amazing how much carbon differs in different minerals. Graphite is also based on carbon. But he can no longer boast of such hardness as a diamond. In addition, the mineral is famous for its play of light. If sunlight passes through a stone, thenwe can observe various bright highlights with you - from blue to red shades. Man saw all the beauty of diamonds only in the 18th century, when he learned how to make a special cut that turns a stone into a brilliant diamond. But they are no longer used for technical purposes. A diamond is a stone designed for jewelry.
Fuel fossils
Valuable minerals for humans, properties are different. It is easy to guess that they include peat, coal, natural gas, oil and oil shale. It turns out that these fossils are used not only as fuel. Oil, gas, coal and peat are used today by power plants and various industrial enterprises. But this group of fossils is also widely used for other purposes, especially in the chemical industry. Such substances are formed and mined on the site of former lakes, which over time turned into a swamp, and then into plains. At the bottom of these reservoirs, various chemical processes took place for many years: deposits of the remains of plants and other organisms. Over the years, they rotted, then turned into sapropel. Many have not even heard such a word, from Greek it means “rotten” and “dirt”. Thus, sapropel is a mud from the decayed remains of living organisms. It becomes peatlands or turns into brown coal.
Scientists have noticed that the process of formation of fossil fuels is very complex and long, it requires a lot of time. For example, peatlands generally form duringseveral millennia. Ecologists say that lovers of swamp drainage need to know and remember this. The very first oil shale mining sites appeared more than a billion years ago. Almost half of all oil shale appeared in the Paleozoic era. Seams of coal were formed about 350 million years ago. In those distant times, our planet resembled lush thickets of giant ferns, horsetails and club mosses. Thanks to these plants, the soil did not have time to rot, turning into wood pulp. Plants and trees that died off fell into the water, were covered with clay and sand, did not decompose, but gradually formed and turned into coal. If you take a piece of such coal in your hand, you can safely imagine that now there is a guest from the distant past in your palm.
Ores
Move to the next category - metal ores. On the outskirts of cities, there are very often announcements about the acceptance of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. You should be aware that a black resource does not look black at all. These are metals that are used in the production of iron and steel by smelting. These include iron, manganese, vanadium or chromium. They come in silver or white. Non-ferrous metals include nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead and others. Most of them were formed in deep magma rocks. Gradually they rise to the earth's surface. Due to the natural action of air, sun and water, mountains are destroyed, and deposits of metals appear in their sedimentary rocks and are opened for humans.
Metals are used in light and heavy industries. They make weapons, parts for vehicles, and so on. The strength of the product depends on what material it was made from. Steel is famous for its strength. Aluminum is widely used in aircraft construction because it is very light. And electrical wiring is made of copper, as it is the best conductor of electricity.
Building materials
The properties of minerals have been valued since ancient times. Of these, man erected various buildings. For example, ancient civilizations built various occult objects from marble, granite or limestone - temples, obelisks, pyramids, and so on. Limestone was very easy to cut into blocks, so the ancient Egyptian pyramids were built from this fossil.
Properties of minerals: clay and sand
Clay people began to use for making dishes, bricks, tiles and various other plumbing items. It is known that it is used now as a heater. It has an excellent property - water resistance. Clay has healing properties. She comes in different colors. Red clay contains iron and potassium. The green substance contains copper and iron. Cob alt was found in blue clay. Carbon and iron are found in dark brown and black clay.
Minerals: sand
The properties of clay and sand are very valuable for humanity. It is a kind of first building materials. They learned to make glass from sand. Towash dishes, often used sand and water. This mixture perfectly laundered any pollution. From the school bench, we begin to study the properties of minerals (Grade 3). People use these resources everywhere. But are they endless? An important task of all mankind is to learn how to rationally use what nature gives us.
