If you lick it (everybody does) and it tastes salty, it’s halite. Unless it’s only salty because a lot of people have handled it, in which case ew.
Physical Properties |
|
| Chemical formula | NaCl |
| Class | Halide |
| Crystal system | Cubic |
| Habit | Cubic crystals Often massive or granular |
| Color | Colorless or white
If impure, may be shades of red, |
| Hardness | 2.5 |
| Specific gravity | 2.16 |
| Cleavage | Perfect cubic {100} |
| Fracture | Conchoidal |
| Luster | Vitreous |
| Transparency | Transparent to translucent |
| Streak | White |
Optical Properties |
|
| PPL | Colorless Non-pleochroic Low relief Perfect cubic cleavage |
| XPL | Isotropic |
| δ | None |
Special properties |
Salty taste |
| after Perkins, 366-367 |
Halite in Hand Sample
Halite
Subhedral halite
Rock salt from the Dead Sea, Israel
Halite casts in Tonoloway Formation limestone
Scanning electron micrograph of halite
Scanning electron micrograph of halite crystals on a grain of sand
Halite in Thin Section
Stay tuned for explorable images!
