PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:
Chemistry: CaTiO3
Composition: Calcium Titanium Oxide
Class: Oxides
Crystal system: Orthorhombic
Fracture: conchoidal
Hardness: 5.5
Specific gravity: 4.0
Luster: submetallic to adamantine
Streak: white to gray
Cleavage: imperfect in one direction
Color: black, brown, gray, orange to yellow.
Transparency: Crystals are opaque
Associated Minerals: andradite,
chlorite, leucite, melanite, melilite, nepheline, serpentine, sphene,
and talc.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS:
Specimens can remind one of darkly colored cubes of galena. But galena's
better metallic luster, greater density and perfect cleavage will give
nobody any trouble in permanently confusing the two.
ENVIRONMENT:
Perovskite is commonly found in aluminum and silica poor
rock types such as nepheline syenites, carbonatites, kimberlites and
melilities. Perovskiteas may also be found in some contact metamorphic
marbles.
CRYSTAL DESCRIPTION:
Crystals of Perovskite appear as cubes. This is deceiving
because Perovskite is actually orthorhombic. This habit is known as
psuedocubic. Its structure is very close to isometric which creates
crystals that are close to being cubes. But larger ions, such as calcium
and some rare earth metals causes a bending or twisting of the octahedrons
and a distortion of the structure to an orthorhombic symmetry.
Also found bladed, reniform, granular and massive.
LOCALITIES:
Crestmore Quarries, Riverside County and the
Diablo Range, San Benito County, California and other US localities
such as Montana and Arkansas. Other locals include Brazil; The Eifel
District, Germany; Italy; Sweden; Zermatt, Switzerland; and The Ural
Mountains, Russia.
USES:
Perovskite is a minor ore of titanium. Due to the
growing value of rare earth minerals in industry. Perovskite is also
sought after, because it is often enriched with cerium, niobium, thorium,
lanthanum, neodymium and other rare earth metals.
FACTS & HISTORY:
Perovskite, was first found in the Ural Mountains and described in
1839 by the geologist Gustav Rose, who named it after the famous Russian
mineralogist Count Lev Aleksevich von Perovski.
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Perovskite Specimens
