Orthorhombic - Definition and Overview

In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 lattice point groups. Orthorhombic lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along two of its lattice vectors by two different factors, resulting in a rectangular prism with a rectangular base (a by b, which is different from a) and height (c, which is different from a and b). The three lattice vectors remain mutually orthogonal.

There are four orthorhombic Bravais lattices: simple orthorhombic, base-centered orthorhombic, body-centered orthorhombic, and face-centered orthorhombic.

simple orthorhombic	base-centered orthorhombic	body-centered orthorhombic	face-centered orthorhombic

The point groups (or crystal classes) that fall under this crystal system are listed below, followed by their representations in international notation and Schoenflies notation, and mineral examples.