Everybody knows that diamonds cannot be scratched, but what about all the other minerals? Where on the scale do they fall as far as hardness?
It turns out that this property was studied by German mineralogist Friedrich Mohs in 1812. He created a scale that ranked the minerals according to whether they could scratch another mineral. The scale is not linear and the difference between 9 and 10 is greater than 9 and 1!
For this graphic, I collected 100 well-known minerals and gems and ranked them in a spiral, ending with diamond in the middle. With a Mohs number of 10, diamond ranks at the maximum end of the scale. Not surprisingly, soft talc is the lowest mineral, with a rank of 1. A quick glance at the spiral and you will see that more expensive and coveted jewels usually have a higher hardness rating.
This piece was published on Voronoi on April 7, 2025.
⭐️ It also won Visual of the Week!
Want one to hang on your wall? This visual is available as a printed 12x18 poster
CHART TYPE: Visual Ranking
For the next one, I display 175 minerals, gems and precious stones by their chemical composition.
I learned so much about mineralogy doing this one. The hardest part was actually deciding which minerals to include. With approximately 6,000 known minerals in the world, I had to narrow it down to a manageable group. I'm sorry if I've missed your favorite! All the popular and well-known ones should be there.
This piece was published on Voronoi on July 11, 2025.
Want one to hang on your wall? This visual is available as a printed as a 20x30 or 24x36 poster
CHART TYPE: Visual Ranking
