Cleavage vs. Fracture
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Cleavage vs. Fracture
When we say a mineral exhibits "fracture," not "cleavage," we are talking about how the mineral breaks. "Fracture" in this instance doesn't mean a hairline crack, the way you might fracture a bone - it means that the mineral breaks, but not along preferred planes. It's a more random way of breaking - since the bonds between all the atoms are roughly equal, there aren't layers of weakness, so the mineral when broken will crack and separate more or less randomly. If a mineral has cleavage, on the other hand, we're saying that there are planes, or flat surfaces, that are more weakly bound - so if the mineral breaks, it will tend to break along that weak plane. That will produce a nice flat surface rather than a rough jagged edge.
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