mud - soil with mud, muck, or mire; The child mucked up his shirt while playing ball in the garden muck up, muck, mire begrime, bemire, colly, dirty, grime, soil - make soiled, filthy, or dirty; don't soil your clothes when you play outside!
Quartz is one of the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. It is made up of silicon dioxide (SiO2), otherwise known as silica. White sand is primarily made from quartz. Click here to find out more.
Silicates are minerals that contain silicon atoms bonded to oxygen atoms. The basic building block for all silicate minerals is called a tetrahedron, where one silicon atom is bonded to 4 oxygen atoms (Figure 3.6). Silicate minerals also often contain other elements, such as calcium, iron, and magnesium.hosphates have a tetrahedron building block that is similar to that of the silicates. But, instead of silicon, phosphates have an atom of phosphorus, arsenic, or vanadium bonded to oxygen. Although there are many minerals in this group, most of the minerals are rare.