Halite
Halide · NaCl · also: Rock salt
Halite is natural rock salt (sodium chloride), forming clear cubic crystals with perfect cubic cleavage and an unmistakable salty taste.
What is halite?
Halite is sodium chloride, the same salt used in cooking, formed where ancient seas and lakes evaporated. It grows as clear or coloured cubes, cleaves into perfect cubes and dissolves in water. Rare blue halite gets its colour from natural radiation.
Properties
- Chemical formula
- NaCl
- Category
- Halide
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2–2.5
- Crystal system
- Cubic (isometric)
- Lustre
- Vitreous
- Streak
- White
- Colour
- Colourless, white, pink, blue
- Cleavage / fracture
- Perfect cubic
How to identify halite
- →Cubic crystals with perfect cubic cleavage.
- →Tastes salty (the classic, if unglamorous, test).
- →Soft, hardness 2–2.5; dissolves in water.
- →Often colourless, white, or pink; rarely deep blue.
Where halite is found
Halite is mined worldwide from evaporite deposits, including Poland (Wieliczka), Germany, and the USA.
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