Iron
Mineral Fe
Also called Native iron and Kamacite
Take care.
- Breaks down in damp air: Keep it dry and in steady humidity; some crumble or rot as they take on moisture.
About it
Strongly magnetic and malleable; it rusts in damp air. Rare as native metal on Earth, best known from basalt on Disko Island, Greenland; most native iron in collections is the nickel-iron of meteorites.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Native element, iron group
- Formula
- Fe
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 4–5
- Specific gravity
- 7.3–7.9
- Streak
- steel grey
- Lustre
- metallic
- Crystal system
- Isometric (cubic)
- Colours
- steel grey, iron black
- Transparency
- opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- imperfect cubic; hackly fracture, malleable
- Magnetic
- Strongly
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.