Shulamitite

shulamitite

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Formula: Ca3TiFe3+AlO8
Oxide, brownmillerite subgroup, perovskite supergroup, titanium-bearing mineral
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 3.84 calculated
Hardness: 6 to 7
Streak: Light brown
Colour: Reddish brown
Environments

Metamorphic environments

Shulamitite is a relatively new mineral, approved in 2011. It is intermediate between perovskite and brownmillerite.

Localities

At the type locality, the Hatrurim Basin, Tamar Regional Council, Southern District, Israel, shulamitite was discovered as a major mineral in a high-temperature larnite-chlormayenite rock. It is associated with larnite, fluormayenite, chromium-bearing spinel, ye’elimite, fluorapatite and magnesioferrite, and retrograde (the mineralogical adjustment of relatively high-grade metamorphic rocks to temperatures lower than those of their initial metamorphism) phases portlandite, hematite, hillebrandite, afwillite, foshagite and katoite. The shulamitite forms reddish brown subhedral grains or prismatic platelets up to 200 microns and intergrowths up to 500 microns in size. Shulamitite from the Hatrurim Basin crystallised under combustion metamorphism conditions characterized by very high temperatures (1150 to 1170oC) and low pressures (the high-temperature region of the spurrite-merwinite facies) (EJM 25.1.97-111).

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