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Euhedral crystals (also known as idiomorphic or automorphic crystals) are those that are well-formed, with sharp, easily recognised faces. The opposite is anhedral (also known as '' xenomorphic'' or ''allotriomorphic''): a rock with an anhedral
texture Texture may refer to: Science and technology * Surface texture, the texture means smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object * Texture (roads), road surface characteristics with waves shorter than road roughness * Texture ( ...
is composed of mineral grains that have no well-formed crystal faces or cross-section shape in
thin section In optical mineralogy and petrography, a thin section (or petrographic thin section) is a thin slice of a rock or mineral sample, prepared in a laboratory, for use with a polarizing petrographic microscope, electron microscope and electron ...
. Anhedral crystal growth occurs in a competitive environment with no free space for the formation of crystal faces. An intermediate texture with some crystal face-formation is termed subhedral. Crystals that grow from cooling liquid
magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural s ...
typically do not form smooth faces or sharp crystal outlines. As magma cools, the crystals grow and eventually touch each other, preventing crystal faces from forming properly or at all. When
snowflake A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. ...
s crystallize, they do not touch each other. Thus, snowflakes form euhedral, six-sided twinned crystals. In
rocks In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's o ...
, the presence of euhedral crystals may signify that they formed early in the crystallization of liquid magma or perhaps crystallized in a cavity or
vug A vug, vugh, or vugg ( ) is a small- to medium-sized cavity inside rock. It may be formed through a variety of processes. Most commonly, cracks and fissures opened by tectonic activity ( folding and faulting) are partially filled by quartz, c ...
, without
steric hindrance Steric effects arise from the spatial arrangement of atoms. When atoms come close together there is a rise in the energy of the molecule. Steric effects are nonbonding interactions that influence the shape ( conformation) and reactivity of ions ...
, or spatial restrictions, from other crystals.


Etymology

"Euhedral" is derived from the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''eu'' meaning "well, good" and ''hedron'' meaning a seat or a face of a solid.


Relation of face orientation to microscopic structure

Euhedral crystals have flat faces with sharp angles. The flat faces (also called
facet Facets () are flat faces on geometric shapes. The organization of naturally occurring facets was key to early developments in crystallography, since they reflect the underlying symmetry of the crystal structure. Gemstones commonly have facets cut ...
s) are oriented in a specific way relative to the underlying atomic arrangement of the crystal: They are
planes Plane(s) most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant * ''Planes' ...
of relatively low
Miller index Miller indices form a notation system in crystallography for lattice planes in crystal (Bravais) lattices. In particular, a family of lattice planes of a given (direct) Bravais lattice is determined by three integers ''h'', ''k'', and ''� ...
. This occurs because some surface orientations are more stable than others (lower
surface energy In surface science, surface free energy (also interfacial free energy or surface energy) quantifies the disruption of intermolecular bonds that occurs when a surface is created. In solid-state physics, surfaces must be intrinsically less energe ...
). As a crystal grows, new atoms attach easily to the rougher and less stable parts of the surface, but less easily to the flat, stable surfaces. Therefore, the flat surfaces tend to grow larger and smoother, until the whole crystal surface consists of these plane surfaces. (See diagram on right.)


See also

*
Xenomorph (geology) In geology, a xenomorph or allotriomorph is a mineral that did not develop its otherwise typical external crystal form because of late crystallization between earlier formed crystals. Xenomorphs are typical of matrix minerals in rapidly crysta ...
*
Crystal habit In mineralogy, crystal habit is the characteristic external shape of an individual crystal or crystal group. The habit of a crystal is dependent on its crystallographic form and growth conditions, which generally creates irregularities due to ...
*
Rock microstructure Rock microstructure includes the texture and small-scale structures of a rock. The words ''texture'' and ''microstructure'' are interchangeable, with the latter preferred in modern geological literature. However, ''texture'' is still acceptable ...
*
List of rock textures This page is intended to be a list of rock textural and morphological terms. A * Adcumulate * Agglomeritic * Adamantine a type of lustre * Amygdaloidal * Anhedral * Antitaxial veins * Aphanitic * Aplitic; aplite * Augen textured gnei ...


Notes


References

* * {{refend Crystallography Mineral habits Petrology