Chemical Formula: CaTiO3
Locality: Achmatovsk near Kussinsk in the Zlatoust district, Ural mountans, Russia.
Name Origin: Named after the Russian mineralogist, L. A. Perovski (1792-1856).
Perovskite (pronunciation: pe’ɹovskaɪt) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral species composed of calcium titanate, with the chemical formula CaTiO3. The mineral was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia by Gustav Rose in 1839 and is named after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski (1792–1856).
It lends its name to the class of compounds which have the same type of crystal structure as CaTiO3 known as the perovskite structure. The perovskite crystal structure was first described by Victor Goldschmidt in 1926, in his work on tolerance factors. The crystal structure was later published in 1945 from X-ray diffraction data on barium titanate by the Irish crystallographer Helen Dick Megaw.
Occurrence
Perovskite is found in contact carbonate skarns at Magnet Cove, Arkansas. It occurs in altered blocks of limestone ejected from Mount Vesuvius. It occurs in chlorite and talc schist in the Urals and Switzerland. It is also found as an accessory mineral in alkaline and mafic igneous rocks, nepheline syenite, melilitite, kimberlites and rare carbonatites. Perovskite is a common mineral in the Ca-Al-rich inclusions found in some chondritic meteorites.
A rare earth-bearing variety, knopite, (Ca,Ce,Na)(Ti,Fe)O3) is found in alkali intrusive rocks in the Kola Peninsula and near Alnö, Sweden. A niobium-bearing variety, dysanalyte, occurs in carbonatite near Schelingen, Kaiserstuhl, Germany.
History
Discovery date : 1839
Town of Origin : ACHMATOVSK, DISTRICT DE SLATOUST, MTS OURAL
Country of Origin : RUSSIE ex-URSS
Optical properties
Optical and misc. Properties: Fragile, cassant – Transparent – Opaque – Translucide
Refractive Index : 2,34
Physical properties
Hardness: 5,50
Density: 4,01
Color : black; brown; yellow; brown red; grayish black; amber; yellow brown
Luster: adamantine; metallic; greasy; unpolished
Streak : white; grey
Break: sub-conchoidal; irregular
Cleavage: Yes
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