Halite is common table salt. It forms where brakish (salty) lakes or sea beds dry up. This evaporation of the water causes the salt to precipitate forming the salt crystals. Halite frequently occurs in crystal form. It is usually colorless but can be reddish brown because of iron oxides in the water that it forms in. Halite has perfect cleavage and a hardness of 2.5 on the Mohs hardness scale.

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