Pronunciation: Hail•ite (accent on capitalized syllable)
Color: colorless to white, although may be colored by impurities to shades of red, brown, yellow...
Luster: vitreous
Diaphaneity: transparent to translucent; may appear opaque in hand specimens
Hardness: 2.5 (about the same as a fingernail)
Specific gravity: 2.16
Cleavage/fracture: 3 perfect cleavage directions at right angles, forming cleavage cubes or boxes
Other distinguishing properties: Halite tastes like table salt (which, not coincidentally, is halite). Halite may be mistaken for calcite, which has 3 perfect directions of cleavage, is harder than halite, and effervesces in dilute hydrochloric acid. Halite might also be mistaken for fluorite (harder than halite, 4 directions of cleavage), quartz (much harder than halite, no cleavage), or gypsum (softer than halite, 2 directions of cleavage).
Klein, C., and Hurlbut, C.S., Jr., 1999, Manual of Mineralogy (after James D. Dana) [21st edition, revised]: New York, John Wiley & Sons, 682 p.
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, The Photo Atlas of Minerals: nhm.org/pam/
Return to the Minerals page.
