Mineral phase
IMA name
Zircon
Secondary names
Cyrtolite, Hyacinth, Jarcon, Malacon
Class
silicate mineral
Compound type
nesosilicate
Formula
$ZrSiO_4$
Chemical formula
ZrSiO4
Elemental formula
Zr Si O4
Isotope mixture type
terrestrial abundance
  Formula Name Family Number min-max Isotope mole fraction State Relevance
$Zr$ Zirconium element 1 constituent element main
$Si$ Silicon element 1 constituent element main
$O$ Oxygen element 4 constituent element main
Composition comments
substituted Hf (~5%), traces of U, Th, Pb, P, La, Ce, Pr, Nd and Sm (~5%)

Strunz

Class
silicates (09)
Division
nesosilicate (09.A)
Family
without additional anions (09.AD)
Code
09.AD.30

Dana

Major class
silicates (VIII)
Class
nesosilicate insular SiO4 groups only (51)
Type
with cations in >[6] coordination (51.05)
Group
Zircon group (51.05.02)
Code
51.05.02.01
Phase type
crystalline
Crystal system
tetragonal
Crystal class
ditetragonal-dipyramidal
Crystal class symbol
4/mmm (D4h)
Crystal spacegroup
I4(1)/amd
Comments
May be partly or fully metamict (U and Th rich crystals)
Molar mass
183.307 $g/mol$
Density
4.6 - 4.7 (calc.: 4.714) $g/cm^3$
State NTP
solid
Refringence type
uniaxial
Refringence sign
negative
Birefringence
0.047 - 0.055
Refraction index $n_o$ (w)
1.967 - 2.015
Refraction index $n_e$ (e)
1.92 - 1.96
Pure color
colorless
Color
colorless, yellow, gray, green, reddish brown, brown
Diaphaneity
transparent to opaque
Luster
adamantine