Zorite is a

silicate mineral Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust. In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide, ) is usually consid ...

with the chemical formula of . It is named because of its pink color, after the Russian word "zoria" which refers to the rosy hue of the sky at dawn.Zorite: Zorite mineral information and data.
Mindat.org It is primarily found in Mount Karnasurta,

Lovozero Massif The Lovozero Massif (russian: Ловозёрские тундры, ''Lovozyorskiye Tundry'', named after the lake in that area – Lake Lovozero; the region is also known as , ''Lovozyorye'') is a mountain range located in the center of the Kola ...

Kola Peninsula sjd, Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк , image_name= Kola peninsula.png , image_caption= Kola Peninsula as a part of Murmansk Oblast , image_size= 300px , image_alt= , map_image= Murmansk in Russia.svg , map_caption = Location of Murmansk Oblas ...

, Russia. The

is an area with an

igneous Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

mountain range, home to various types of minerals such as

eudialyte Eudialyte, whose name derives from the Greek phrase , , meaning "well decomposable", is a somewhat rare, nine member ring cyclosilicate mineral, which forms in alkaline igneous rocks, such as nepheline syenites. Its name alludes to its ready ...

loparite Loparite-(Ce) is a granular, brittle oxide mineral of the perovskite class. It is black to dark grey and may appear grey to white in reflected light on polished thin section with reddish brown internal reflections.Loparite-(Ce) oWebmineral/ref> It ...

, and natrosilitite. Crystallographically, zorite belongs in the orthorhombic group, which has 3 axes, a, b, and c that are of unequal lengths (a≠b≠c) that form 90° with each other. It also belongs in the point group 2/m2/m2/m. The state of aggregation for zorite is acicular. Zorite has perfect cleavage along the planes and , while having poor cleavage along the plane . Zorite is anisotropic, which means that the velocity of light is not the same in all directions. It belongs in the biaxial group, because it is an orthorhombic mineral. Under plane polarized light, zorite displays different colors depending on the angle that the light hits the mineral. This quality is called pleochroism and zorite is rose along the x-axis, colorless along the y-axis, and bluish along the z-axis. The index of refraction of zorite is 1.59, which is the velocity of light through vacuum over the velocity of light through zorite. Zorite is studied to better understand silicate structures. In 2003, zorite was looked into to analyze the symmetry and topology of a family of three minerals found in Russia, Nenadkevichite, Labuntsovite, and Zorite. Zorite was also studied to comprehend how silicate structures change when an element is replaced, for example when the

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable ...

is replaced with

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 atmosph ...

, caesium and

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

.N.V. Zubkova, D.Yu. Pushcharovsky, G.Giester, I.V. Pekov, A.G. Turchkova, E. Tillmanns, N.V. Chukanov. (2006) Kristallografiya, 51-3, 413–416 (in Russian). Furthermore, because of its rarity, zorite is one of the collectors’ items coveted for its scarcity, as well as it being a valuable source to understanding silicate topology.

References

{{Reflist *Mer'kov, A.N., Bussen, I.V., Goiko, E.A., Kul'chitskaya, E.A., Men'shikov, Yu.P., and Nedorezova, A.P. (1973) Raite and zorite - new minerals from the Lovozero Tundra. Zapiski Vserossiyskogo Mineralogicheskogo Obshchestva, 102, 54-62 (in Russian). Aluminium minerals Sodium minerals Titanium minerals Inosilicates Orthorhombic minerals Minerals in space group 65