Mineralogical hardness

You can view data for three different hardnesses.

Hardness ranges on scale from 1 to 10 and mineralogical hardness depends upon the ability of a material to scratch another.

Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a periodic table cityscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a periodic table cityscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a periodic table heatscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a periodic table heatscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a spiral periodic table heatscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a spiral periodic table heatscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D spiral periodic table column style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D spiral periodic table column style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D periodic table column style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D periodic table column style.

Units

Moh scale

Notes

The scale is roughly logarithmic, that is, a material with a hardness of 8 is roughly 10 times as hard as another material whose hardness is 7, which in turn is 10 times as hard as a material whose hardness is 6, and so on. The minerals chosen by Moh for this scale are:

  • 10: diamond
  • 9: corundum
  • 8: topaz
  • 7: quartz
  • 6: orthoclase
  • 5: apatite
  • 4: fluorite
  • 3: calcite
  • 2: gypsum
  • 1: talc

Literature sources

  1. G.V. Samsonov (Ed.) in Handbook of the physicochemical properties of the elements, IFI-Plenum, New York, USA, 1968.
Explore the element of your choice through this periodic table.
1 2   3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
S
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
*
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
**
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
 
*Lanthanoids *
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
**Actinoids **
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102