The Mineral From Space That’s Harder Than Diamond
SciShow・7 minutes read
Diamonds have a Mohs hardness of 10, making them the hardest mineral on Earth due to their scratch-proof quality from covalent bonds. Lonsdaleite, harder than diamond, is found in meteorites and could potentially be produced synthetically with successful replication of its formation process.
Insights
- Diamonds are renowned for being the hardest mineral on Earth, boasting a Mohs hardness of 10, attributed to their covalent bonds, making them nearly unscratchable.
- Lonsdaleite, a mineral even harder than diamond due to its unique hexagonal structure, is primarily found in meteorites, hinting at its potential synthetic production if the replication process succeeds.
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Recent questions
What is Wondrium?
A subscription service offering answers to various questions.
What is the hardest mineral on Earth?
Diamonds, with a Mohs hardness of 10.
How is mineral hardness determined?
Based on scratch-proof quality.
What is the Mohs hardness of corundum?
9, due to ionic and covalent bonds.
What is lonsdaleite?
A mineral harder than diamond.
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Summary
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"Hardness of Minerals: Diamonds and Beyond"
- Wondrium is a subscription service offering answers to various questions, providing a free trial at wondrium.com/scishow.
- Diamonds are known as the hardest mineral on Earth, with a Mohs hardness of 10, determined by the Mohs mineral hardness scale.
- The hardness of minerals is based on their scratch-proof quality, with diamonds being nearly unscratchable due to their covalent bonds.
- Corundum, found in rubies and sapphires, has a Mohs hardness of 9 due to both ionic and covalent bonds.
- Lonsdaleite, a mineral harder than diamond, is arranged hexagonally with each carbon atom bound to six others, but its existence is mainly in meteorites.
- Research suggests lonsdaleite formed before diamonds in meteorites, with potential for synthetic production if the process can be replicated successfully.
