Earth, Our Environment - Class Notes
Chapter 3, Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks - 05
Bonding Atoms and Making Minerals

Chemical Bonds

Chemical bonds (formed between electrons) are the forces that hold the atoms together. There are four types of chemical bonds:

More than one type of bond can be present in any mineral.

Atoms combine to Build Minerals

Minerals are compounds (a collection of more than one atom) of one or more different types of atoms.

Gold

Au

Diamond

C

Graphite

C

Quartz

Si, O

Plagioclase Feldspar

Ca, Na, Al, Si, O

The regular geometric arrangement of atoms in a mineral is called the lattice. Diamond and graphite are made of the same type of atoms (Carbon) but have substantially different lattice structures.

[Study Figure 3.7 on page 55 of the text]


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Prepared by: Charles J. Ammon
cammon@geosc.psu.edu
February 1997