Halite Mineral Data

[Newest Minerals] [Equipment] [Analytical Services] [About Us] [Mineral Gallery] [eBay Store]
See Also: [Diamond Crystals] [Mineral News] [Hudson Institute] [Minerals on CDROM]
Rare Minerals, Meteorites, Equipment and Analytical Services
Excalibur Mineral Company, World leaders in the supply of rare species
Serving the scientific and collector communities since 1974

General Halite Information

Chemical Formula:

NaCl

Composition:

Molecular Weight = 58.44 gm

Sodium 39.34 % Na 53.03 % Na₂O

Chlorine 60.66 % Cl 60.66 % Cl

- % Cl -13.69 % -O=Cl₂

______ ______

100.00 % 100.00 % = TOTAL OXIDE

Empirical Formula:

NaCl

Environment:

Marine or continental evaporite deposits.

IMA Status:

Valid Species (Pre-IMA) Prehistoric

Locality:

World wide in sedimentary basins. Link to MinDat.org Location Data.

Name Origin:

From the Greek halos, meaning "salt" and lithos meaning "rock."

Name Pronunciation:

Halite

Synonym:

ICSD 18189

Murate of Sota

PDF 5-628

Rock Salt

Sodium Chloride

Halite Image

Images:

Halite

Comments: Hoppered pink halite crystals from the evaporation ponds. The pink color is due to the organism Halo bacterium that lives in the concentrated brine.
Location: Searles Lake, Trona, San Bernadino County, California, USA. Scale: Crystal size 2 cm.
© John Veevaert

Halite Crystallography

Cell Dimensions:

a = 5.6402, Z = 4; V = 179.43 Den(Calc)= 2.16

Crystal System:

Isometric - HexoctahedralH-M Symbol (4/m 3 2/m) Space Group: F m3m

$Help on X Ray Diffraction:$ X Ray Diffraction:

By Intensity(I/I_o): 2.821(1), 1.994(0.55), 1.628(0.15),

Forms:

Mouse
Dbl Clk - Start-Stop Rotation
RMB - Cycle Display Modes
Drag1 - Manipulate Crystal
Drag2 - Resize
Keyboard
S - Stereo
I - Indicies
<space> - Start-Stop Rotation
F - Fit to Screen
M - Menu
Help on Above

Forms: ( 1 0 0)

Warning: this large pop-up is very compute intensive and may not work well with some computers.

Crystal Structure:

Mouse
drag1 - LMB Manipulate Structure
drag2 - RMB Resize/Rotate
Keyboard
S - Stereo Pair on/off
H - Help Screen
I - Data Info
A - Atoms On/Off
P - Polyhedra On/Off
B - Bonds On/Off
Help on Above

Finger L W , King H E , American Mineralogist , 63 (1978) p.337-342, A revised method of operation of the single-crystal diamond cell and refinement, of the structure of NaCl at 32 kbar

View Additional jPOWD Structure files for Halite
[1] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [2] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Physical Properties of Halite

Cleavage:

{100} Perfect, {010} Perfect, {001} Perfect

Color:

White, Clear, Light blue, Dark blue, Pink.

Density:

2.17

Diaphaneity:

Transparent

Fracture:

Brittle - Generally displayed by glasses and most non-metallic minerals.

Habit:

Crystalline - Coarse - Occurs as well-formed coarse sized crystals.

Habit:

Euhedral Crystals - Occurs as well-formed crystals showing good external form.

Habit:

Granular - Generally occurs as anhedral to subhedral crystals in matrix.

Hardness:

2.5 - Finger Nail

Luminescence:

Fluorescent, Short UV=red, green (organic inclusions) orange, Long UV=red, green orange.

Luster:

Vitreous (Glassy)

Magnetism:

Nonmagnetic

Streak:

white

Optical Properties of Halite

Optical Data:

Isotropic, n=1.544.

Calculated Properties of Halite

Electron Density:

Bulk Density (Electron Density)=2.07 gm/cc
note: Specific Gravity of Halite =2.16 gm/cc.

Fermion Index:

Fermion Index = 0
Boson Index = 1

Photoelectric:

PE_Halite= 4.63 barns/electron
U=PE_Halite x rElectron Density= 9.59 barns/cc.

Radioactivity:

GRapi = 0 (Gamma Ray American Petroleum Institute Units)
Halite is Not Radioactive

Halite Classification

Dana Class:

09.01.01.01 (09)Anhydrous and Hydrated Halides

(09.01)where A X

(09.01.01)Halite Group

09.01.01.01 Halite NaCl F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

09.01.01.02 Sylvite KCl F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

09.01.01.03 Villiaumite NaF F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

09.01.01.04 Carobbiite KF F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

09.01.01.05 Griceite LiF F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

Strunz Class:

03.AA.20 03 - HALIDES

03.A - Simple Halides, Without H2O

03.AA -M:X = 1:1, 2:3, 3:5, etc.

03.AA.20 Carobbiite KF F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

03.AA.20 Griceite LiF F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

03.AA.20 Halite NaCl F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

03.AA.20 Sylvite KCl F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

03.AA.20 Villiaumite NaF F m3m 4/m 3 2/m

Other Halite Information

References:

NAME( Duda&Rejl90) PHYS. PROP.(Enc. of Minerals,2nd ed.,1990) OPTIC PROP.(Enc. of Minerals,2nd ed.,1990)

Search for Halite using:

[AOL] [Bing] [Dog Pile] [GeoScienceWorld] [HotBot] [Ixquick] [Lycos] [MAMMA] [Scirus] [Teoma] [WebCrawler] [Wikipedia] [YAHOO]

Visit our Advertisers for Halite :

B and L Fine Minerals
Dakota Matrix Minerals
Dan & Diana Weinrich Mineral Auctions
Excalibur Mineral Corp.
Exceptional Minerals
John Betts Fine Minerals
Mineral News
Mineral of the Month Club
NY/NJ Gem & Mineral Show
TIMA Mineral Analyzer
Weinrich Minerals, Inc.
Wright's Rock Shop

Ask about Halite here :
Ask-A-Mineralogist from the Mineralogical Society of America
Mindat.org's Discussion Groups
Original Rockhounds Discussion Group
Rockhounds Discussion Group on Yahoo Groups
Mineral Discussion Forum from Fabre Minerals - also available in Español

Print or Cut-and-Paste your Halite Specimen Label here :

Halite

NaCl
Dana No: 09.01.01.01 Strunz No: 03.AA.20
Locality:

Notes: