Diamond
Mineral C
About it
The hardest mineral; rough crystals are greasy-looking octahedrons and cubes. Mined from kimberlite in South Africa, Botswana, Russia, and the Northwest Territories; Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds lets visitors dig.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Native element, carbon
- Formula
- C
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 10
- Specific gravity
- 3.5–3.53
- Streak
- none (too hard to leave one)
- Lustre
- adamantine (diamond-like), greasy
- Crystal system
- Isometric (cubic)
- Colours
- colourless, yellow, brown, grey, black, pink, blue, green
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent, opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- perfect octahedral; conchoidal fracture
- Under UV light
- often blue under longwave UV
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.