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6.3: Fracture

  • Page ID
    3202
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    Fracture is the random breakage of a gemstone when being hit with a sharp or hard object along a direction other than then the direction of cleavage or parting. The most common type of fracture is termed "conchoidal" (shell-like).

    The types of fracture are:

    • conchoidal
    • uneven
    • even
    • splintery
    • granular

    Sources

    • Gemmology 3rd edition (2005) - Peter Read

    This page titled 6.3: Fracture is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by gemology via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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