Kazakovite was named in honor of Maria Efimovna Kazakova analytical chemist. It is a type locality of Karnasurt mountain,

Lovozersky District Lovozersky District (russian: Лово́зерский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the six in Murmansk Oblast, Russia.Law #96-01-ZMO Municipally, it is incorporated as Lovozersky Municipal District.Law #574-02-ZMO I ...

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast (russian: Му́рманская о́бласть, p=ˈmurmənskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, r=Murmanskaya oblast, ''Murmanskaya oblast''; Kildin Sami: Мурман е̄ммьне, ''Murman jemm'ne'') is a federal subject (an oblast) o ...

, Russia. It was approved by the IMA in 1974, the same year it was discovered.

Properties

Kazakovite is a cation-saturated member of the lovozerite group and the zirsinalite-lovozerite subgroup. It occurs in

sodalite Sodalite ( ) is a tectosilicate mineral with the formula , with royal blue varieties widely used as an ornamental gemstone. Although massive sodalite samples are opaque, crystals are usually transparent to translucent. Sodalite is a member of th ...

syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). Some syenites contain larger proport ...

s, and disseminated in

ussingite Ussingite is a silicate mineral with formula Na2AlSi3O8(OH). It was named for Niels Viggo Ussing (1864–1911), Copenhagen, Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , im ...

. X-ray studies show the mineral to be

rhombohedral In geometry, a rhombohedron (also called a rhombic hexahedron or, inaccurately, a rhomboid) is a three-dimensional figure with six faces which are rhombi. It is a special case of a parallelepiped where all edges are the same length. It can be use ...

. It occurs as small crystals (0.01 – 2 mm), and is showing the forms and . Kazakovite mainly consists of oxygen (44.59%), silicon (25.65%) and sodium (19.58%), but also contains titanium (4.45%), manganese (3.40%), iron (1.73%) and potassium (0.61%). It has a barely detectable, 8.56 radioactivity measured in

Gamma Ray American Petroleum Institute Units Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this lett ...

. It is radioactive due to containing

potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin '' kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosp ...

, even though in low amounts. The concentration measured in GRapi is 11.68%.

Tisinalite

After its discovery, it was quickly noticed the mineral is unstable in air. The mineral became covered in efflorescence of

natron Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate ( Na2CO3·10H2O, a kind of soda ash) and around 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda, NaHCO3) along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate. ...

and

thermonatrite Thermonatrite is a naturally occurring evaporite mineral form of sodium carbonate, Na2CO3·H2O. It was first described in 1845. Its name is from the Greek θερμός ''thermos'', "heat", plus ''natron'', because it may be a dehydration produc ...

after several days in room conditions. After special experimental studies, it was found that the mineral alters in air into H-kazakovite, better known as tisinalite. The process is complete after several weeks of exposure to moist air.

References

{{reflist Minerals