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What is "crystal habit"?

Crystal Habit

The crystal habit of a mineral is the characteristic shape it takes if it has room to "grow" freely. Table salt (halite), for example, will always grow in cubes, as will fool's gold (pyrite). Garnets will grow in wonderfully complex dodecahedrons, and asbestos minerals are fibrous. These are all characteristic crystal habits, or crystal shapes, and all minerals will grow in a predicatable shape if they can.

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