NATURE OF THE LUMINESCENCE OF CERTAIN MINERALS FROM THE MURUN ALKALIC MASSIF

Abstract

We made the first investigation of photo- and X-ray luminescence of a series of new and rare minerals taken from various types of rocks (igneous, metasomatic, hydrothermal), of the Murun block, and attempted to evaluate the redox conditions of their generation. We studied tausonite (SrTiO3) from ultrapotassic igneous rocks, Sr-burbankite (Na2Sr2Ca2(CO3))5 from carbonates, and canasite (K2Na4Ca5Si12O30F4), fedorite (NaCaSi4O9(OH)), and agrellite (NaCa2Si4O10F), from a complex of hydrothermal-metasomatic charoite-bearing rocks. Luminescence in the minerals that we studied, combined with experiments involving artificial alteration of the redox conditions, indicates that the genesis of the rocks from which the minerals were isolated was rather complex and that the rocks most probably experienced an inversion of the redox environment during their development. The evolution of igneous melts and hydrothermal-metasomatic solutions also altered their alkalinity. The luminescence of ions in minerals is primarily an indicator of the redox environment during their generation.