Welcome!


Join more than 152,000 members on FunAdvice to ask questions, share advice, photos and make new friends today.
FunAdvice RSS for this page:
Rss_feed

How can the streak test be helpful in identifying minerals?

my name is dan Asked by dan41790 over 4 years ago, 1 answer.

How can the streak test be helpful in identifying minerals?

Gir rules. Answered by mikeh on Jul 23, 2008, 01:04PM
1719 answers
Advisor-small

From geology.edu:

The color of a mineral when it is powdered is called the streak of the mineral. Crushing and powdering a mineral eliminates some of the effects of impurities and structural flaws, and is therefore more diagnostic for some minerals than their color. Streak can be determined for any mineral by crushing it with a hammer, but it is more commonly (and less destructively) obtained by rubbing the mineral across the surface of a hard, unglazed porcelain material called a streak plate.

The color of the powder left behind on the streak plate is the mineral's streak. The streak and color of some minerals are the same. For others, the streak may be quite different from the color, as for example the red-brown streak of hematite, often a gray to silver-gray mineral. The combination of luster, color, and streak may be enough to permit identification of the mineral.

Answer this Question: "How can the streak test be helpful in identifying minerals?"

Your Answer: HTML is not allowed.


Our members said the answers on this page also answer the following questions:


How can the streak test be helpful in identifying minerals

Science Photos

help me! help me !help me!!!!help help helpu need some help, here how to pass the test

Share this question

Copy and paste this code:
It will display on your blog or site like this:
How can the streak test be helpful in identifying minerals?