Evacuated ground diatomite was investigated in a load-controlled hot plate system. The measured dependence of the solid thermal conductivity, λsc, on the external pressure load, Pext, can be approximated by λsc ∝ Pext1/20 for Pext between 0.1 and 10 bar. While λsc shows the same slight increase with temperature as the solid conductivity of nonporous amorphous silica (SiO2), the radiative conductivity, λr, displays a proportionality λr ∝ Tα with α 4.4. The caloric data were supplemented by infrared transmission measurements taken with a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. The derived wavelength-averaged specific extinction coefficient, e¯, decreases with temperature; e¯ ∝ T-β with β 1.4, consistent with the caloric data.