Tracing of dislocations in gypsum single crystals

An attempt has been made to trace the trajectory of dislocations of isolated as well as matched pairs of (010) basal cleavages of gypsum when etched with analar grade nitric acid and 0.1n potassium hydroxide. The dislocations are shown to be oblique, parallel, continuous lines passing through the body of the crystal. The lines are cut into smaller fragments on cleaving the crystal into thinner flakes. The implications of this are discussed.