Muscovite, or mica, is found naturally on Earth.
Muscovite is a mineral, commonly known as mica. It is in a class of minerals that most students study in basic geology classes. In these studies, most people will learn identify minerals through their characteristics. Muscovite has several distinguishing characteristics that set it apart from other minerals and make it easy to identify.
Appearance
Muscovite has a sheen to it that looks similar to metal or aluminum. It has a light color spectrum and can be green, brown, yellow, silver or white. It often has distinguishable patterns similar to quartz or feldspar. The pattern looks crystal in nature.
Hardness
One of the easiest ways to identify naturally occurring minerals is to test their hardness. Muscovite's hardness is rated between a two and a three. This is rather soft on the scale used to measure mineral hardness. Falling on the low end of the hardness scale means it can be easily scratched by common objects, such as a penny or a fingernail.
Cleavage
Cleavage refers to how easily a piece of the mineral breaks off. The cleavage of Muscovite is perfect. This means that Muscovite will leave a straight, clean edge when broken. Muscovite is very easily broken and does so in sheets. When minerals have imperfect cleavage, it means they are difficult to break and leave jagged, imperfect edges when they are broken.
Luster
The luster of Muscovite is one of the easiest characteristics to use in identification. Luster is rated from metallic to dull. The luster of Muscovite is vitreous to pearly. This lands it on the metallic or shiny end of the luster spectrum. Seventy percent of all minerals are vitreous, and those that are classified as vitreous have a glassy surface. Historically, Muscovite was used for making windows, so peeling off a sheet of it and analyzing the luster is a good way to identify it.
Tags: luster Muscovite
