GEO 306 Lab 4
Carbonates, Sulfates, Phosphates and an Intro to Silicates
To download an electronic copy of this lab (Adobe PDF File), Click Here. This laboratory exercise is designed to give the students an introduction to Carbonate, Sulfate, and Phosphate minerals in hand sample and a basic understanding of their structures. Also, this lab marks the first real push forward into the wonderful world of Silicates. It is a very good idea for the students to read up on these minerals in the textbook before coming to the lab so that they will have some background knowledge of these minerals before they get there. This lab, like previous ones, is designed to use and expand upon the personal background knowledge of the student while using the textbook and the TA's as valuable resources for pertinent information. The information in this lab can be difficult to grasp, but with a little extra effort, you should be able to swallow it without much difficulty.
This lab, just like the previous ones, is broken down into two main sections: Hand Sample Identification, and Mineral Chemistry and Structure. In the first section, the students are required to identify 25 hand samples based on their physical properties and what we have learned in class about mineralogy. The list of minerals given on the front page of this Lab Exercise is exhaustive, meaning that only the things on this list will be in the mineral trays.
For the section on the structure and chemistry of these minerals, the students are given several structural models to study, and are asked a series of questions geared toward making the students work together toward a fuller understanding of the structure and chemistry of these minerals. Some questions are easier than others, and some require a lot of thought and discussion. All in all, this exercise should give the students a good grasp of Carbonate, Sulfate, and Phosphate minerals, along with a basic introductory understanding of Silicates, both macroscopically and microscopically.
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