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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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Photo by Roger Weller,
Cochise College
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MUSCOVITE (MICA)
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MUSCOVITE was once commonly used for windows. The Russian mica mines that produced it gave muscovite its name (it was once widely known as "Muscovy glass"). Muscovite is is a high-aluminum member of the mica family of minerals, all known for the property of perfect basal cleavage; cleavage layers can be easily peeled off into very thin sheets which are quite durable and are not easily destroyed by erosion. Muscovite sheets have high heat and electrical insulating properties and are used to make electrical components.
A common rock forming mineral, muscovite is found in igneous, metamorphic and detrital sedimentary rocks. It is not usually valuable as a mineral speciemen but can be found associated with other valued minerals such as tourmaline, topaz, beryl, almandine and others. |
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Chemistry: Potassium aluminum silicate hydroxide fluoride ♦ Class: Silicates ♦
Group: micas ♦ Crystal system: monoclinic ♦Luster: vitreous to pearly ♦
Color: white, silver, yellow, green and brown ♦
Transparency: transparent to translucent ♦ Fracture: uneven ♦
Cleavage: perfect in one direction producing thin sheets or flakes ♦
Moh's hardness: 2 - 2.5 ♦ Localities: India, Pakistan, Brazil and many USA localities.
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