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is ice a mineral?

Originally posted by: Henrythewound
Ice is technically a mineral.

A mineral is an inorganic crystalline solid, so ice qualifies.
Click to expand...

Interesting....so diamond is not technically a mineral?
 
Originally posted by: Henrythewound
Ice is technically a mineral.

A mineral is an inorganic crystalline solid, so ice qualifies.
Click to expand...

finally a winner!!! you are correct Ice IS a mineral.

Ice is not often thought of as a mineral, but it is! Most minerologists define minerals as having an homogenous chemical composition, with an organized structure and of a natural inorganic origin. Ice fits all these characteristics; it has an homogenous formula, H2O, it has an organized structure, with hexagonal symmetry, it is formed naturally as snow, etc. and it is formed inorganically.
Only natural ice counts as a mineral such as snow, natural lake or river ice, glacieral ice and permafrost. Liquid water does not get the same consideration, as to being a mineral, by most minerologists because it lacks the crystalline structure of ice. However native mercury is routinely treated as a mineral.

Although no known specimens of ice are sold as mineral specimens, there are scientists that study ice and its crystals for some very important reasons. Questions such as how ice crystals form in clouds is important to weather forecasters and climatologists. Glaciologists study the behavior of ice crystals under extreme pressure and how they begin to flow. Physists are concerned with ice crystals on other planets where their presence there is not taken for granted.

from here http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/oxides/ice/ice.htm
 
Another interesting thing about ice is there are at least 9 diff. kinds. It deends on the T ad P, so glaciologists and planetary geologists are concernde/interested in this sort of thing

 
Coal would be an example of something that's organic (therefore not a mineral). Diamonds are made of some of the same stuff, but they have a crystaline structure, not just compacted peat etc.
 
Originally posted by: Henrythewound
Coal would be an example of something that's organic (therefore not a mineral). Diamonds are made of some of the same stuff, but they have a crystaline structure, not just compacted peat etc.
Click to expand...

Now you're confusing me.
Coal is carbon, has a crystalline structure, and is organic.
Diamond is carbon, has a crystalline structure and is NOT organic?
Can you explain a little more verbosely?
😕
 
Coal is just compacted swampy material (an organic "carboniferous" sedimentary rock)- it does not have crystal structure. A diamond is made of C atoms arranged in a crystalline structure (tetrahedra I believe-thats why its so hard). It was originally composed of organic material, but do to intense pressure and heat was trasformed into a mineral with an ordered crystalline structure.

http://www.webmineral.com/

thats a sweet website, you can look at different minerals and crystal structures and rotate them etc. check it out.
 
Originally posted by: Henrythewound
Coal is just compacted swampy material (an organic "carboniferous" sedimentary rock)- it does not have crystal structure. A diamond is made of C atoms arranged in a crystalline structure (tetrahedra I believe-thats why its so hard). It was originally composed of organic material, but do to intense pressure and heat was trasformed into a mineral with an ordered crystalline structure.

http://www.webmineral.com/

thats a sweet website, you can look at different minerals and crystal structures and rotate them etc. check it out.
Click to expand...

I get it now...thanks! I am going to have to use carboniferous more often.
 
Originally posted by: Xionide
No because their is no chemical reaction in frozen water.
Click to expand...

Could argue that the rates of freezing and melting are in equilibrium on an particulate level. So yes, there is a reaction going on.

H20(s) + heat <---> H20(L)

Utilize LeChatelier's principle.
 
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