What are Minerals?
What are Minerals?
If we describe what are Minerals, building blocks of rocks. If you examine a rock, let’s say, granite you will see that there are speckles of gray, black and white. As you zoom in, you will find out that these are actually crystals; or more specifically mineral crystals, which is compose mainly of quartz and feldspar with minor amounts of mica, amphibious, and other minute amount of minerals.
On Earth there are almost 2000 varieties of minerals. They come in different sizes, shapes, textures and colours, thus having all sorts of physical characteristics. Minerals have quite a few uses in our everyday life. For example we use diamond for jewelry, construction applications and other industrial equipment. Moreover, the mineral fluorite is use in toothpaste as fluoride. Talc is another soft mineral that is ground into powder giving rise to talcum powder or baby powder.
What makes a Mineral?
A mineral has to fulfill five criteria in order to be call a mineral. These are:
1. The substance must exist as a solid under normal conditions on Earth. Hence mercury is not a mineral since it is clearly a liquid.
2. The substance must not be man made and should naturally occur on Earth. However coal is not mineral because it does not fulfill the next criteria. It is make from ancient tropical plants, which once living things.
3. The substance must be inorganic that means it should not be make of living things or coming from living things. E.g. Coral is not a mineral because it is make from sea creatures hence is organic in nature.
4. The substance must be made from specific combination of elements and thus must have a fixed chemical formula. E.g. the mineral quartz is made of silicon and oxygen bonded together, specifically, one silicon bonded to two oxygen atoms. All quartz are made of this same chemical formula.
5. The atoms that make up this structure must be arranged in an orderly crystal structure; like silicon tetra hydra is the specific arrangement of silica atoms.
Ice is a strange case because according to criteria it is a mineral since it has all these properties but there is most controversy on this aspect. Some scientists say that it does not fall under the category of mineral since it melts to a liquid. Moreover, what makes a pencil write is not lead but a mineral know as graphite.
What do Minerals do?
Our bodies need minerals in small amounts. It helps in muscle contraction and helps with enzyme activities. Finally nearly all minerals except iron are absorb in their free form. Mineral interact with each other and affect the absorption of one another in the body. For example iron supplement interferes with absorption of zinc. So there are sixteen minerals which are essential for our body and these are:
1. Calcium 2. Magnesium
3. Sodium 4. Chloride
5. Phosphorus 6. Sulfur
7. Potassium 8. Chromium
9. Copper 10. Iodine
11. Iron 12. Molybdenum
13. Selenium 14. Fluoride
15. Manganese 16. Zinc
The key is to have a balanced diet in order to have all the essential minerals in the body.