| Tugarinovite | |
| Category: | Oxide mineral |
| Formula: | MoO2 |
| Imasymbol: | Tug[1] |
| Strunz: | 4.DB.05 |
| System: | Monoclinic |
| Class: | Prismatic H-M symbol (2/m) |
| Symmetry: | P21/c (no. 14) |
| Unit Cell: | a = 5.6 Å, b = 4.85 Å, c = 5.53 Å; β = 119.37° |
| Color: | Dark lilac-brown |
| Habit: | Crystals are tabular striated prisms |
| Twinning: | Polysynthetic |
| Mohs: | 4.6 |
| Luster: | Greasy to metallic |
| Streak: | Greenish gray |
| Diaphaneity: | Semitransparent |
| Gravity: | 6.58 (calculated) |
| Opticalprop: | Biaxial |
| Pleochroism: | Light gray to dark pink; pale yellow to bluish olive-brown in reflected light |
| References: | [2] [3] [4] |
Tugarinovite is a rare molybdenum oxide mineral with formula MoO2.It occurs as a primary mineral phase associated with metasomatism in a sulfur deficient reducing environment. In the type locality it occurs with uraninite, molybdenite, galena, zircon and wulfenite.[2]
Tugarinovite was first described for an occurrence in the Lenskoye molybdenum–uranium deposit in the Amurskaya Oblast, Far-Eastern Region, Russia. It was named for geochemist Ivan Alekseevich Tugarinov of the Vernadskii Institute in Moscow.[2] [3] In addition to its type locality in Russia it has been reported from the Allende meteorite in Chihuahua, Mexico, the Nansei Archipelago of Japan and Bohemia in the Czech Republic.[3]