HOW TO MAKE A MINERAL

Minerals are formed in four main ways:

• FROM MAGMA - Hot, molten lava cools and crystallizes to form minerals such as topaz. • FROM WATER - Chemicals in saturated water precipitate, or separate, into solids. An easy example is salt, halite, that’s left behind after ocean water evaporates. • ALTERATION – As minerals react, slowly or quickly, with their environment they form di erent minerals. Cuprite forms when it’s exposed to oxygen. • RECRYSTALLIZATION - Exposure to heat and pressure alters the chemistry of a mineral to become a di erent mineral.