Zircon

Zircon
By Avi Shugar Ele Sorensen Edited by: Jessy Huang **Chemical Formula:** ZrSiO4

**Composition:** Zirconium silicate, often with some hafnium and occasionally with some uranium, thorium, and yttrium. It can contain up to 20 percent of hafnium in its structure; if it exceeds that amount then it is no longer Zircon but Hafnon.

**Color:** Normally dark brown. Sometimes gray, red-brown, orange, yellow, light blue, light green, purple-white, and dark red.

**Hardness:** 7.5

**Crystal System:** Tetragonal

**Specific Gravity:** 4.6


 * Cleavage:** 3,2

Conchoidal to uneven.
 * Fracture:**[[image:images-1.jpeg width="151" height="148" align="right" caption="Zircon in several different colors"]]


 * Citation:**http://www.minerals.net/mineral/zircon.asp

By Myles Courtney