Home > Type Localities II – August 5 > MS1629 Perovskite

Perovskite - Sold


Perovskite is nominally simply calcium titanium oxide, but natural samples are rarely pure. Iron typically occurs in the mineral, and electronic charge transfer between titanium and iron atoms leads to a black color for perovskite. Rose (1839) named the mineral after Count Lev Alekseevich Perovskii (1792-1856), mineralogist from St. Petersburg.

This is a crude complex crystal, seemingly forming a cube, but truly it is a complexly twinned group of orthorhombic individuals. Minor green clinochlore is present. The crystal is somewhat rough, with chipping on edges, showing only four of its pseudo-cubic faces; this is a reference piece. While not large for this locality, this is a very large perovskite crystal on a worldwide basis.