GENERAL GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Cleavage. The way in which a mineral breaks along smooth flat planes is called cleavage. These breaks occur along planes of weakness in the mineral’s structure. However, if a mineral breaks along an irregular surface, it does not have cleavage.

Detailed explanation-2: -CLEAVAGE: ➢ Tendency of crystallized mineral to break along a certain definite direction yielding more or less smooth, plane surfaces.

Detailed explanation-3: -In eminent cleavage, the mineral can be split very easily yielding extremely smooth surfaces, e.g., in mica. Clarification: Parting is a property of minerals by virtue of which it can be split easily along certain secondary planes.

Detailed explanation-4: -If minerals break smoothly, along predetermined planes, the minerals are said to have cleavage. If a mineral does not have any degree of cleavage, it is said to have an irregular breakage pattern called fracture.

Detailed explanation-5: -Biotite, for example, often shows a single cleavage (set of parallel cracks) but biotite’s cleavage will not be visible if a grain is viewed in a specific orientation (see section on biotite, below). Minerals may exhibit zero, one, two, or more cleavages.