* Its color: While color can be a helpful starting point, many minerals come in a variety of colors due to impurities or variations in their chemical composition. For example, quartz can be clear, pink, purple, or even black.
* Its shape: Minerals can occur in many shapes, including crystals, irregular lumps, and even fine-grained aggregates. The shape can be influenced by how the mineral formed.
* Its size: Mineral size can vary wildly. A single mineral specimen can be microscopic or the size of a house. Size is not a reliable indicator of its identity.
What WOULD help you identify a mineral:
* Hardness: This is a measure of how resistant a mineral is to scratching. The Mohs Hardness Scale uses a set of ten minerals to compare hardness.
* Streak: The color of a mineral's powder when rubbed against a streak plate.
* Cleavage and fracture: How a mineral breaks when stressed. Cleavage refers to breaks along smooth, flat planes, while fracture refers to irregular breaks.
* Luster: How light reflects off the mineral's surface (e.g., metallic, glassy, dull).
* Specific gravity: The ratio of the mineral's density to the density of water.
* Chemical composition: Using tools like chemical tests or X-ray diffraction to determine the mineral's chemical makeup.
Remember, identifying minerals often involves a combination of tests and observations.
