Materials

Magnetite

Mineral

Citation Formats

General Reference

Earth and Environment Atlas. "Magnetite." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/magnetite.

APA Style

Earth and Environment Atlas. (n.d.). Magnetite. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/magnetite

BibTeX

@misc{earthandenvironmentatlas-magnetite,
  author = {Earth and Environment Atlas},
  title = {Magnetite},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/magnetite},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A mineral and one of the main iron ores, an iron oxide that is ferrimagnetic: attracted to a magnet and able to be magnetized into a permanent magnet itself. Apart from extremely rare native iron deposits it is the most magnetic of all naturally occurring minerals on Earth, and naturally magnetized pieces called lodestone are how ancient peoples first discovered magnetism. Its locked-in magnetization is also the record paleomagnetism reads.

Facts

Kind

Mineral 1

Formation Class

Oxide mineral (iron oxide), forming as an accessory mineral in igneous and metamorphic rocks and as a major constituent of banded iron formations. 1

Chemical Formula

Fe3O4 (iron(II,III) oxide) 1

Hardness (Mohs)

6 1

Commonly cited range is 5.5 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale; 6.0, the midpoint, is used here.

Cross-Tradition Connections