Rock salt
Rock
Also called Halite rock and Halitite
Take care.
- Damaged by water: Keep it dry: don't wash it, and keep it out of damp places.
- Breaks down in damp air: Keep it dry and in steady humidity; some crumble or rot as they take on moisture.
About it
Rock of coarse halite crystals: it tastes salty, breaks into cubes, and dissolves in water. Mined from thick beds and salt domes, as at Goderich, Ontario, and the Wieliczka mine in Poland.
- Type
- Rock (sedimentary)
- Group
- Sedimentary (evaporite)
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2–2.5
- Specific gravity
- 2.1–2.3
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy)
- Colours
- colourless, white, grey, pink, orange, blue
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- perfect cubic, in three directions
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.