How does crystal structure determine mineral cleavage?
1 Answer
Sep 17, 2015
every crystal structure has a definite shape like
cubic ,hexagonal ,FCC etc
A plane named cleavage plane is present in every crystal system
So due to the particular type of crystal plane the mineral which has the crystal system cleaves only in a particular direction
the cleavage occurs in {001} planes
In
in FCC cleavage occurs in [111] plane
Diamond which has Octahedral cubic has Octahedral clevage
for planes of hexagonal system refer (Miller-Bravias Indices for Hexagonal crystal sytsem )
