By this method it is shown that water, when present as " water of crystallization," behaves as if it were ice.
By advancing crystallization and increased size of their components, slates pass gradually into phyllites, which consist also of quartz, muscovite and chlorite.
Glauber's salt readily forms supersaturated solutions, in which crystallization takes place suddenly when a crystal of the salt is thrown in; the same effect is obtained by exposure to the air or by touching the solution with a glass rod.
Cleavage is thus a superinduced structure, and its explanation is to be found in the rearrangement of the minerals, and the development of a certain degree of crystallization by pressure acting on the rock.
Window glass exposed to alkaline vapours often shows a thin iridescent surface film which is supposed to be due to crystallization; the same change is found in pieces of Roman glass which have been dug out of the ruins of Pompeii.