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:
“The advice of their elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935)
“Religious literature has eminent examples, and if we run over our private list of poets, critics, philanthropists and philosophers, we shall find them infected with this dropsy and elephantiasis, which we ought to have tapped.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Wise men read very sharply all your private history in your look and gait and behavior. The whole economy of nature is bent on expression. The tell-tale body is all tongues. Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces which expose the whole movement.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As men’s habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.”
—Baruch (Benedict)