How are minerals, elements and rocks related?

Elements are atoms, the smallest piece that we can split matter into (except for subatomic particles and other things that we'll leave to the physicists). Different elements have different properties. Take two different elements: iron and helium. Iron is very different than helium. read more

Calcium carbonate is always the same substance, but the varieties of rocks and minerals it forms depend on the textures, structures, modes of formation, and environments of deposition related to how it was formed. read more

Rocks are a composed of one or more minerals. A rock can be made up of only one mineral or, as shown in the figure, a rock can be made up of a number of different minerals. So, rocks are composed of one or more minerals and minerals are composed of one or more elements. read more