Quiz 2

Question 1

Significance of tellurium minerals

Answer 1

Solar cells

Question 2

Significance of cobalt

Answer 2

Used in speakers, phones, electric motors, rechargeable batteries, stainless steel. Most of it is mined in Africa. US is largest consumer but doesn’t produce.

Question 3

Ore

Answer 3

Material that occurs naturally and contains a mineral(s) that can be extracted for profit

Question 4

Ore grade

Answer 4

The concentration of the desired metal/element within the ore. Often given in percentages (i.e. 2% has 2 pounds of material in 100 pounds of ore)

Question 5

Beneficiation

Answer 5

Separates desired mineral from the rest of the rocks and minerals in the ore

Question 6

Leaching

Answer 6

The use of chemicals to dissolve desired metals and transport them in a solution to the collection area

Question 7

Refining

Answer 7

The final process in purifying an ore to the concentration after beneficiation

Question 8

Tailings

Answer 8

Waste material created by beneficiation

Question 9

The process of ore extraction includes these steps:

Answer 9

Exploring, extraction, beneficiation/smelting/refining (concentrating it)

Question 10

Some methods geologists use for finding suitable mining locations (part of exploration)

Answer 10

Maps, results at similar geological environments, and visit to potential site for field studies (mapping, sampling, and/or chemical analysis)

Question 11

Surface mining vs underground mining

Answer 11

Surface mines are typically larger and use blasting procedures.
Underground mines are smaller operations with less land disturbance and waste rock (and the waste is often moved to the surface or used to fill in mine areas no longer in use)

Question 12

The presence of what type of minerals leads to pollution/contamination?

Answer 12

Sulfides

Question 13

Beneficiation

Answer 13

The process through which the desired minerals are concentrated

Question 14

Smelting

Answer 14

Separates the metal from the material through heating in the presence of a material known as flux. Desired mineral settles to bottom of melt, undesireables (slag) rise to top

Question 15

Some new standards for mine closure, in order to reduce contamination

Answer 15

Slope stabilization and water/soil treatment

Question 16

Hydration shell

Answer 16

Cations that “hydrolize” in water change pH – small ions with high charge tend to hold onto some water molecules

Question 17

Lithium

Answer 17

Mined from intrusive igneous rock, often mined from brine, component in batteries, most brine-derived lithium is located in one spot of the Andes Mountains of South America

Question 18

Brine mining

Answer 18

Well is drilled and brine is pumped to the surface; brine will evaporate, minerals don’t need to be separated, and rocks don’t need to be broken and moved

Question 19

Instrusive/plutonic

Answer 19

Rocks crystallized from slowly cooling magma intruded within the Earth’s crust. These rocks are course-grained; deep-seated, major intrustions

Question 20

Extrusive/volcanic

Answer 20

Rocks crystallized from rapidly-cooling magma, extruded on the surface of Earth as lava or erupted as pyroclastic material. These rocks are fine-grained, from extrusive lava flows

Question 21

Phaneritic

Answer 21

Course-grained, intrusive rocks

Question 22

Aphanitic

Answer 22

Fine-grained, extrusive rocks

Question 23

Vesicular

Answer 23

Contains vesicles (gas bubbles escaping lava)

Question 24

Porphyritic

Answer 24

Large crystals in fine-grained matrix. This mixture of course and fine comes from rocks cooling at different temperatures

Question 25

Glassy minerals tell us...

Answer 25

That minerals underwent rapid cooling (pumice and obsidian)

Question 26

Pyroclastic

Answer 26

(Fragmental); consolidation of individual rock fragments, ejected during volcanic eruption

Question 27

Two components of a porphyritic texture, and their definitions

Answer 27

Groundmass: fine-grain material (forms last) Phenocryst: chunky texture/rock chunks

Question 28

Pumice vs tuff

Answer 28

Tuff: volcanic ash that's been cemented together, has a higher density Pumice: highly vesicular textured volcanic glass

Question 29

Lithic tuff

Answer 29

Tuff with predominantly rock fragments

Question 30

Vitric tuff

Answer 30

Tuff with predominantly pumice and glass fragments

Question 31

Crystal tuff

Answer 31

Tuff with predominantly crystal fragments

Question 32

QOP triangle components and what rock type it concerns

Answer 32

Quartz Orthoclase Plagioclase Mainly concern felsic, intrusive rocks

Question 33

3 factors affecting melting (and how)

Answer 33

Pressure: increased pressure raises melting points (atoms are tighter and require increased energy to get them to vibrate) Water content: increased water content lowers melting points. Water weakens the minerals' bonds Composition: felsic minerals melt at lower temperatures than mafic materials

Question 34

Origin of magmas

Answer 34

Mafic: melting of upper mantle (ex: at divergent spreading centers) Intermediate: melting of sedimentary rocks and mafic lithosphere (ex: in subduction zones) Felsic: melting of continental crust rocks

Question 35

Magma differentiation

Answer 35

Process by which rocks of various compositions can arise from uniform parent magma (mafic melts first, cools last, vice versa for felsic)

Question 36

Fractional crystallization

Answer 36

The process by which crystals forming in a cooling magma are segregated from the remaining liquid; the chemical composition of the magma slowly changes In a simple scenario, crystal settles to the floor or adheres to the walls of the magma chamber The reason magma becomes differentiated is because of fractional crystallization

Question 37

Bowen's Reaction series

Answer 37

As our structure changes, it affects which minerals crystallize first (simplest structures crystallize first)

Question 38

Factors that affect viscosity

Answer 38

Magma composition (more silica = more viscous), temperature (lower temp = more viscous), amount of dissolved gases (increased amount decreases viscosity)

Question 39

3 major types of lavas

Answer 39

Basaltic, rhyolitic, and andesitic

Question 40

Mafic vs felsic magma

Answer 40

Mafic: low viscosity (flows), low explosiveness, divergent plate tectonic setting Felsic: high viscosity (flows less), highly explosive, convergent plate tectonic setting

Question 41

Mafic, plutonic rock

Answer 41

Gabbro

Question 42

Mafic, volcanic rock

Answer 42

Basalt

Question 43

Felsic, plutonic rock

Answer 43

Granite

Question 44

Felsic, volcanic rock

Answer 44

Rhyolite

Question 45

Gross domestic product

Answer 45

Indicator of a country’s economic performance and its level of development.

Question 46

Natural resource consumption rate

Answer 46

Domestic extraction of a material plus its imports minus its exports of the same materials

Question 47

Energy density

Answer 47

How much energy is in a given mass. Used for batteries

Question 48

What temperature do rocks start to melt at

Answer 48

700 C

Question 49

Decompression melting

Answer 49

Pressure-induced melting

Question 50

Flux melting

Answer 50

Water content-induced melting

Question 51

Partial melting causes magma to...

Answer 51

Get more felsic, become less dense, and rise