Cleavage
is a tendency to break along flat surfaces.
What physical properties of a mineral allows it to break repeatedly along smooth and flat surfaces?
Cleavage
is the tendency of a mineral to break along certain planes to make smooth surfaces. Halite breaks between layers of sodium and chlorine to form cubes with smooth surfaces (Figure 6). A mineral that naturally breaks into perfectly flat surfaces is exhibiting cleavage. Not all minerals have cleavage.
What is the property of a mineral splitting evenly along a flat surface?
Mineral Properties. What is
cleavage
? Cleavage is the property of splitting evenly along flat surfaces.
How a mineral breaks apart in an irregular way?
Fracture
describes how a mineral looks when it breaks apart in an irregular way.
Why does each mineral have different properties?
Sometimes two different minerals have the same chemical composition. But they are different minerals
because they have different crystal structures
.
What are the 3 mineral properties?
Most minerals can be characterized and classified by their unique physical properties:
hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, and tenacity
.
Why is color considered an ambiguous property of minerals?
Color is an ambiguous property of
fluorite because it is a different specimens (color) of the same mineral (fluorite)
. … Quartz can have the same color as other minerals making it a not so good diagnostic character.
How do you identify a cleavage plane?
To determine the angle of cleavage,
look at the intersection of cleavage planes
. Commonly, cleavage planes will intersect at 60°, 90° (right angles), or 120°. Be cautious when you see a flat surface on a mineral – not every flat surface is a cleavage plane.
What is it called when a mineral breaks apart?
Definitions.
Cleavage
– The tendency of a mineral to break along flat planar surfaces as determined by the structure of its crystal lattice. These two-dimensional surfaces are known as cleavage planes and are caused by the alignment of weaker bonds between atoms in the crystal lattice.
What is the glow called minerals?
Minerals with
phosphorescence
can glow for a brief time after the light source is turned off. Minerals that are sometimes phosphorescent include calcite, celestite, colemanite, fluorite, sphalerite, and willemite. Thermoluminescence is the ability of a mineral to emit a small amount of light upon being heated.
What mineral smells like rotten eggs?
Hydrogen sulfide
smells like rotten eggs. Most sulphur on Earth is found in sulfide and sulfate minerals.
Why do we need to check for more than one property in mineral identification?
A mineral’s appearance helps identify it
.
However, many minerals occur in more than one color, so you would need to examine other properties as well. You might also notice how the mineral reflects light, which determines how shiny or dull it is. Most minerals reflect light in characteristic ways.
Does the size of a mineral affect its properties?
In other words, the size or amount of a material/substance
does not affect its density
. 3.
What are the 2 major properties of minerals?
A mineral species is defined by two distinct properties:
(1) its chemical com- position and (2) its crystal structure
. Each mineral has a distinct three- dimensional array of its constituent atoms. This regular geometry affects its physical properties such as cleavage and hardness.
What are the 5 properties of minerals?
Thus, in most cases, general appearance and a few easily determined physical properties are sufficient to identify the mineral.
Color, luster, streak, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and crystal form
are the most use- ful physical properties for identifying most minerals.
What is color in physical properties of minerals?
For example, a mineral described as “shiny
yellow
” is being described in terms of luster (“shiny”) and color (“yellow”), which are two different physical properties. Standard names for luster include metallic, glassy, pearly, silky, greasy, and dull.
