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Lovozerite crystals
L. Horváth sp.
Photo by Violet Anderson
© Royal Ontario Museum
Lovozerite crystals
© Gilles Haineault
Lovozerite crystals
© Modris Baum
NaCa(Zr,Ti)Si(O,OH)18
Lovozerite, a member of the lovozerite group, occurs rarely at
Mont Saint-Hilaire.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Color is usually brown, orange-brown, reddish brown, beige,
tan and rarely yellow or pink.
Luster is vitreous to dull.
Diaphaneity is opaque, with translucent to transparent zones.
Crystal System is hexagonal;
Crystal Habits include well-formed pseudo-dodecahedra to 3mm,
spherical aggregates, 2mm blades and as grains and embedded
subhedral to anhedral crystals.
Cleavage none apparent.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Hardness is 5.
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.64 g/cm
Streak is brown.
Associated Minerals include aegirine, albite, eudialyte, griceite,
lueshite, pectolite, sérandite, sodalite, steenstrupine, terskite,
ussingite, villiaumite and vuonnemite.
Distinguishing Features: Crystal habit.
Origin: Named in 1939 after its discovery locality, in the Lovozero
alkaline complex, Kola Peninsula, Russia.
CLASSIFICATION:
Dana System
# 61.1.2a.1
Strunz Classification
# VIII/E.16-30
REFERENCES:
MinRec 21:319-320 (1990), Dana 8:1247 (1997)
DISTRIBUTION AND RARITY AT MONT SAINT-HILAIRE:
MSH
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Lovozerite crystals
© Stephan Wolfsried