When a pyrite crystal is hit with a hammer, it breaks into pieces with smoothly curved edges. What mineral characteristic does this relate to?

1 Answer
Jul 19, 2016

This is called conchoidal fracture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conchoidal_fracture).

Explanation:

Some other materials with conchoidal fracture include quartz, flint, and jasper. Silica, the main ingredient in these materials, is especially likely to form crystals with no preferred cleacage plane snd thus undergo conchoidal fracture. The iron sulfide in pyrite can act similarly.