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The Rock Professor has provided you with a mineral
information card. Print on stock paper, and cut out to
enhance your rock and mineral products.
To print: with your cursor, highlight the entire card below,
right click and select print, then click on "selection"
and print.
| THE ROCK PROFESSOR |
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Image by Roger Weller, Cochise College
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CALCITE
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Calcite is a common rock-forming mineral. It has many industrial uses, such as cement, and is found in many colors. It occurs in many forms of crystals, and in many types of deposits, and has a strong rhombohedral cleavage. An optically clear variety is called Iceland spar, and exhibits strong double refraction, which is when a ray of light enters the mineral, it is divided into two rays that diverge. It is too soft to be used as gem material, but many beautiful crystals have been collected the world over.
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Chemistry: CaCO3 ♦ Group: Hexagonal Scalenohedral ♦
Color: Colorless, White, Pink, Yellow, Brown ♦ Luster: Vitreous ♦
Transparency: Transparent to translucent to opaque ♦ Moh's hardness: 3 ♦
Fracture: Conchoidal - Very brittle fracture producing small, conchoidal fragments. ♦
Localities: Found in sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.
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