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Hematite facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Hematiet (xndr)
A piece of hematite

Hematite or haematite is the main ore of iron. It is mostly iron(III) oxide. Millions of tons are dug up every year. This is usually to feed to blast furnaces to make steel. It is a mineral related to corundum. It is an oxide.

It has a metallic luster. It has no cleavage (the way a mineral breaks). It has a fracture. The fracture is irregular and uneven. Hematite on the hardness scale is 5 to 6. It has a bright red to dark red streak. To find the streak, you take the mineral and run it across a plate of unglazed porcelain. The colours can be metallic grey to a dark, rough and earthy red colour. Hematite has the chemical formula of Fe2O3.

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Images for kids

  • 07-ml-3-soil-mosaic-B019R1 br

    Image mosaic from the Mars Exploration Rover Microscopic Imager shows Hematite spherules partly embedded in rock at the Opportunity landing site. Image is around 5 cm (2 in) across.

  • Hematite - Titanomagnitite

    A microscopic picture of hematite

  • Hematite structure

    Crystal structure of hematite

  • Hematite-LTH43A

    A rare pseudo-scalenohedral crystal habit

  • Quartz-Hematite-113680

    Three gemmy quartz crystals containing bright rust-red inclusions of hematite, on a field of sparkly black specular hematite

  • Rutile-Hematite-113489

    Golden acicular crystals of rutile radiating from a center of platy hematite

  • Cylinder seal antelope Louvre AM1639

    Cypro-Minoan cylinder seal (left) made from hematite with corresponding impression (right), approximately 14th century BC

  • Hematite-254990

    A cluster of parallel-growth, mirror-bright, metallic-gray hematite blades from Brazil

  • Hematite.bear.660pix

    Hematite carving, 5 cm (2 in) long

  • Hematit 2

    Hematite, variant specularite (specular hematite), with fine grain shown

  • Hematite-rich BIF ventifact

    Red hematite from banded iron formation in Wyoming

  • Hematite on mars

    Hematite on Mars as found in form of "blueberries" (named by NASA)

  • Hematite streak plate

    Streak plate, showing that Hematite consistently leaves a rust-red streak.

  • Hematite in Scanning Electron Microscope, magnification 100x

    Hematite in Scanning Electron Microscope, magnification 100x.

  • Micaceous hematite

    Micaceous hematite taken with permission from Kelly's Mine, Lustleigh, Devon UK

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Hematita para niños

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Hematite Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.