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Chemical Formula: SiC
Color: Green
Hardness: 9.25
Specific Gravity: 3.1 - 3.2

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Moissanite is a hard mineral that was discovered by Dr. Ferdinand Henri Moissan, a French chemist and Nobel Prize winner. He found tiny amounts of Moissanite in the iron meteorite that was found at Diablo Canyon (also called Meteor Crater) in Arizona, USA. Synthetic moissanite is also known as silicon carbide after its chemistry and by the trade name, carborundum.

Moissanite grown in laboratories is used as a gemstone or diamond simulant. Moissanite and diamond are thermally conductive unlike other diamond simulants and this property is used as the test for the authenticity of real diamonds. Other differences are: Moissanite is hexagonal, not isometric and therefore it is doubly refractive unlike diamond. Moissanite is also slightly less dense than diamond and is rarely perfectly clear of color, having pale shades of green.

Natural moissanite is very rare and is limited to iron-nickel meteorites and a few other rare ultra-mafic igneous occurences. Moissanite is classified as an element dispite the fact, that in chemical reality, it is a compound. The elemental bonds that exist between carbon and silicon are very similar to the carbon-carbon bonds of other elemental minerals such as diamond.