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Minerals often have a highly distinctive fracture, making it a principal feature used in their identification. Fracture differs from cleavage in that the latter involves clean splitting along the cleavage planes of the mineral's crystal structure, as opposed to more general breakage. All minerals exhibit fracture, but when very strong cleavage ...
A conchoidal fracture is a break or fracture of a brittle material that does not follow any natural planes of separation. Mindat.org defines conchoidal fracture as follows: "a fracture with smooth, curved surfaces, typically slightly concave, showing concentric undulations resembling the lines of growth of a shell". [ 1 ]
The reaction between certain fluids and the minerals the rock is composed of can lower the stress required for fracture below the stress required throughout the rest of the rock. For instance, water and quartz can react to form a substitution of OH molecules for the O molecules in the quartz mineral lattice near the fracture tip.
There are several types of uneven fracture. The classic example is conchoidal fracture, like that of quartz; rounded surfaces are created, which are marked by smooth curved lines. This type of fracture occurs only in very homogeneous minerals. Other types of fracture are fibrous, splintery, and hackly.
On the macroscopic scale, the formation of veins is controlled by fracture mechanics, providing the space for minerals to precipitate. [3] Failure modes are classified as (1) shear fractures, (2) extensional fractures, and (3) hybrid fractures, [4] and can be described by the Mohr-Griffith-Coulomb fracture criterion. [5]
The fractures take the form of a set of concentric cones dipping at a relatively shallow angle into the magma chamber. [3] [13] When the caldera is subsequently emptied by explosive volcanic activity, the roof of the magma chamber collapses as a plug of rock surrounded by a ring fracture. Magma rising into the ring fracture produces a ring dike.
Transgranular fracture is a type of fracture that occurs through the crystal grains of a material. In contrast to intergranular fractures , which occur when a fracture follows the grain boundaries, this type of fracture traverses the material's microstructure directly through individual grains.
In the upper crust, where rock is brittle, the shear zone takes the form of a fracture called a fault. In the lower crust and mantle, the extreme conditions of pressure and temperature make the rock ductile. That is, the rock is capable of slowly deforming without fracture, like hot metal being worked by a blacksmith.