A mineral is a naturally occurring solid substance with a fairly well defined chemical composition and an ordered, crystalline atomic structure, the definition used by the International Mineralogical Association, the body that formally recognizes new mineral species. A rock is a different kind of thing: it may be made of a single mineral or, more often, an aggregate of several different minerals occurring together, so that granite, for example, is built from quartz, feldspar and other minerals rather than being a mineral itself. As of May 2025 the International Mineralogical Association recognized 6,145 official mineral species, most of them named, by convention, for a person or a place associated with their discovery and ending in the suffix ite.
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Source Mineral (Wikipedia)
Source Mineral (Wikipedia)
Studied In
Source James Hutton (Britannica)
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Mineral (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDefinitions section
The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is the generally recognized standard body for the definition and nomenclature of mineral species.
Belongs To: Mineralogy, Lead sentence
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.
Belongs To: Geology, Lead sentence
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.
View the Source James Hutton (Britannica)
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