Cleavage

From The Gemology Project
Revision as of 14:49, 9 December 2006 by Doos (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search


Cleavage

Cleavage is the splitting of a gemstone along the direction of its crystal faces where molucules have weak bonding. This can occur only in crystalline minerals when a precise blow is given in a particular direction, even if the habit does not show the crystal faces. The result of cleavage is a more or less flat plane with often a silky luster.

There are several directions of cleavage.

  • Prismatic cleavage
  • Basal cleavage
  • Pinacoidal cleavage
  • Octahedral cleavage
  • Rhombohedral cleavage

The quality of cleavage is expressed with a few simple phrases.

  • Perfect
  • Good
  • Fair
  • Poor
Prismatic cleavage
Basal cleavage


Parting

Parting is the splitting of a gemstone along twinning planes.

Fracture

Fracture is the random breakage of a gemstone when behing hit with a sharp or hard object. The most common type of fracture is termed "conchoidal" (shell-like).

The types of fracture are:

  • conchoidal
  • uneven
  • even