Earth's Minerals (Book)

Streak is the color of the powder of a mineral. To do a streak test, you scrape the mineral across an unglazed porcelain plate. The plate is harder than many minerals, causing the minerals to leave a streak of powder on the plate. The color of the streak often differs from the color of the larger mineral sample, as Figure shows.

Streak is more reliable than color to identify minerals. The color of a mineral may vary. Streak does not vary. Also, different minerals may be the same color, but they may have a different color streak. For example, samples of hematite and galena can both be dark gray. They can be told apart because hematite has a red streak and galena has a gray streak.

Rub a mineral across an unglazed porcelain plate to see its streak. The hematite shown here has a red streak.