Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness - Minerals

Minerals

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample of matter to scratch another mineral. The samples of matter used by Mohs are all different minerals. Minerals are pure substances found in nature. Rocks are made up of one or more minerals. As the hardest known naturally occurring substance when the scale was designed, diamonds are at the top of the scale. The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by finding the hardest material that the given material can scratch, and/or the softest material that can scratch the given material. For example, if some material is scratched by apatite but not by fluorite, its hardness on the Mohs scale would fall between 4 and 5.

The Mohs scale is a purely ordinal scale. For example, corundum (9) is twice as hard as topaz (8), but diamond (10) is four times as hard as corundum. The table below shows comparison with absolute hardness measured by a sclerometer, with pictorial examples.

Mohs hardness Mineral Chemical formula Absolute hardness Image
1 Talc Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 1
2 Gypsum CaSO4·2H2O 3
3 Calcite CaCO3 9
4 Fluorite CaF2 21
5 Apatite Ca5(PO4)3(OH–,Cl–,F–) 48
6 Orthoclase Feldspar KAlSi3O8 72
7 Quartz SiO2 100
8 Topaz Al2SiO4(OH–,F–)2 200
9 Corundum Al2O3 400
10 Diamond C 1600

On the Mohs scale, graphite (a principal constituent of pencil "lead") has a hardness of 1.5; a fingernail, 2.2–2.5; a copper penny, 3.2–3.5; a pocketknife 5.1; a knife blade, 5.5; window glass plate, 5.5; and a steel file, 6.5. A streak plate (unglazed porcelain) has a hardness of 7.0. Using these ordinary materials of known hardness can be a simple way to approximate the position of a mineral on the scale.

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