Crystal parting occurs when minerals break along a plane of structural weakness due to an external stress; this plane is called a cleavage surface. The direction of a cleavage plane is parallel to that of the crystal structure surface (the planar surface formed by the arrangement of internal particles) and the direction of the plane of weakest bonding. Cleavage planes are distributed on the crystal in accordance with the symmetry of the crystal; that is, all crystal parting occurs simultaneously in the same direction as the crystal surface of the same crystal. The quality of cleavage is typically described by the terms eminent, perfect, distinct, difficult and imperfect.
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(2020). Mineral Cleavage. In: Chen, A., Ng, Y., Zhang, E., Tian, M. (eds) Dictionary of Geotourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1569
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1569
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