Mineral hardness is the ability of a mineral to resist some kinds of external mechanical action (e.g., carving, pressing and grinding). The mineral hardness generally refers to the Mohs scale hardness, which is determined by comparisons between minerals and the standard hardness minerals. The standard hardness scale proposed by Mohs in 1822 is used in mineralogy. From soft to hard, the ten minerals are (1) talc, (2) gypsum, (3) calcite, (4) fluorite, (5) apatite, (6) orthoclase, (7) quartz, (8) topaz, (9) corundum and (10) diamond.
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(2020). Mineral Hardness. In: Chen, A., Ng, Y., Zhang, E., Tian, M. (eds) Dictionary of Geotourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1574
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1574
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