List of Crystal Habits
| Habit | Image | Description | Common Example(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acicular | Needle-like, slender and/or tapered | Natrolite, Rutile | |
| Amygdaloidal | Almond-shaped | Heulandite, subhedral Zircon | |
| Bladed | Blade-like, slender and flattened | Actinolite, Kyanite | |
| Botryoidal or globular | Grape-like, hemispherical masses | Hematite, Pyrite, Malachite, Smithsonite, Hemimorphite, Adamite, Variscite | |
| Columnar | Similar to fibrous: Long, slender prisms often with parallel growth | Calcite, Gypsum/Selenite | |
| Coxcomb | Aggregated flaky or tabular crystals closely spaced. | Barite, Marcasite | |
| Cubic | Cube shape | Pyrite, Galena, Halite | |
| Dendritic or arborescent | Tree-like, branching in one or more direction from central point | Pyrolusite and other Mn-oxide minerals, Magnesite, native copper | |
| Dodecahedral | Dodecahedron, 12-sided | Garnet | |
| Drusy or encrustation | Aggregate of minute crystals coating a surface or cavity | Uvarovite, Malachite, Azurite | |
| Enantiomorphic | Mirror-image habit (i.e. crystal twinning) and optical characteristics; right- and left-handed crystals | Quartz, Plagioclase, Staurolite | |
| Equant, stout | Length, width, and breadth roughly equal | Olivine, Garnet | |
| Fibrous | Extremely slender prisms | Serpentine group, Tremolite (i.e. Asbestos) | |
| Filiform or capillary | Hair-like or thread-like, extremely fine | many Zeolites | |
| Foliated or micaceous or lamellar (layered) | Layered structure, parting into thin sheets | Mica (Muscovite, Biotite, etc.) | |
| Granular | Aggregates of anhedral crystals in matrix | Bornite, Scheelite | |
| Hemimorphic | Doubly terminated crystal with two differently shaped ends. | Hemimorphite, Elbaite | |
| Hexagonal | Hexagon shape, six-sided | Quartz, Hanksite | |
| Hopper crystals | Like cubic, but outer portions of cubes grow faster than inner portions, creating a concavity | Halite, Calcite, synthetic Bismuth | |
| Mamillary | Breast-like: surface formed by intersecting partial spherical shapes, larger version of botryoidal, also concentric layered aggregates | Malachite, Hematite | |
| Massive or compact | Shapeless, no distinctive external crystal shape | Limonite, Turquoise, Cinnabar, Realgar | |
| Nodular or tuberose | Deposit of roughly spherical form with irregular protuberances | Chalcedony, various Geodes | |
| Octahedral | Octahedron, eight-sided (two pyramids base to base) | Diamond, Magnetite | |
| Plumose | Fine, feather-like scales | Aurichalcite, Boulangerite, Mottramite | |
| Prismatic | Elongate, prism-like: crystal faces parallel to c-axis well-developed | Tourmaline, Beryl | |
| Pseudo-hexagonal | Hexagonal appearance due to cyclic twinning | Aragonite, Chrysoberyl | |
| Radiating or divergent | Radiating outward from a central point | Wavellite, Pyrite suns | |
| Reniform or colloform | Similar to botryoidal/mamillary: intersecting kidney-shaped masses | Hematite, Pyrolusite, Greenockite | |
| Reticulated | Crystals forming net-like intergrowths | Cerussite | |
| Rosette or lenticular (lens shaped crystals) | Platy, radiating rose-like aggregate | Gypsum, Barite (i.e. Desert rose) | |
| Sphenoid | Wedge-shaped | Sphene | |
| Stalactitic | Forming as stalactites or stalagmites; cylindrical or cone-shaped | Calcite, Goethite | |
| Stellate | Star-like, radiating | Pyrophyllite, Aragonite | |
| Striated | Not a habit per se, but a condition of lines that can grow on certain crystal faces on certain minerals | Tourmaline, Pyrite, Quartz, Feldspar, Sphalerite | |
| Stubby or blocky or tabular | More elongated than equant, slightly longer than wide, flat tablet shaped | Feldspar, Topaz | |
| Platy | Flat, tablet-shaped, prominent pinnacoid | Wulfenite | |
| Tetrahedral | Tetrahedra-shaped crystals | Tetrahedrite, Spinel, Magnetite | |
| Wheat sheaf | Aggregates resembling hand-reaped wheat sheaves | Stilbite |
Read more about this topic: Crystal Habit
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, crystal and/or habits:
“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“My list of things I never pictured myself saying when I pictured myself as a parent has grown over the years.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“Opinionated writing is always the most difficult ... simply because it involves retaining in the cold morning-after crystal of the printed word the burning flow of molten feeling.”
—Gavin Lyall (b. 1932)
“Though there are wreck-masters appointed to look after valuable property which must be advertised, yet undoubtedly a great deal of value is secretly carried off. But are we not all wreckers contriving that some treasure may be washed up on our beach, that we may secure it, and do we not infer the habits of these Nauset and Barnegat wreckers, from the common modes of getting a living?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)