A. The Elements
It is not positively known how we got here but one of the more popular beliefs is that billions of years ago the earth was an exceedingly hot, coalescing place. It was so hot, in fact, that there were no recognizable features; nc mountains, oceans or land. The earth was one limitless, luminescent ocean of magma. After many millions of years the earth eventually cooled down and everything that we know of today separated out of this very hot soup that we call magma.
Today, billions of years later, the earth is still a very hot and inhospitable place only a few miles below our feet. There the earth is still hot, boiling magma, fiery and violent. Occasionally this magma will erupt to the surface through some crevice or volcanic explosion and rudely remind us about exactly where it is that we are living on.
Most of the earth is made up of magma. Magma is melted rock. It is made up mostly of silicon and oxygen. Earth’s crust has ninety-two elements all of which are present in magma. Some of these you find a lot of; others are rare. Of all the elements only about twelve are abundant enough to make up an important part of the earth’s crust. Some of these are:
Earth’s Most Abundant Elements
1
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Oxygen
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0
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46%
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Silicon
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Si
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27%
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Aluminum
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Al
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8%
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Iron
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Fe
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5%
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Calcium
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Ca
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3%
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Sodium
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Na
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2.8%
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Potassium
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K
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2.5%
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Magnesium
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Mg
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2.0%
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B. The Minerals
Minerals come from nature. They crystallize from magma or are deposited from solution. Minerals are made from elements. From minerals we get crystals. Crystals are solid mineral bodies. They have a definite shape and volume and their atoms are arranged in fixed, regularly repeating patterns.
When most of us think of crystals we may have in mind gems and the more dramatic crystal forms. The field of crystals is surprisingly large, however. It includes items one would never guess are categorized as crystals. For example, all metals are crystals. Rocks, trees and bones are also considered crystals. Glass, something many layman might consider a crystal, is one of the rare items not a crystal. That is so because its molecular structure is not in a fixed, regularly repeating pattern. A crystal, therefore, is defined by its fixed, regularly repeating internal structure. It was only with the advent of X-rays that this structure was confirmed. This regularly repeating structure is also what is responsible for the great outward beauty of crystals.
