Ulvöspinel or ulvospinel is an iron titanium oxide mineral with formula: Fe2TiO4. It forms brown to black metallic
isometric crystals with a
Mohs hardness of 5.5 to 6. It belongs to the
spinel group of minerals, as does
magnetite, Fe3O4 . Ulvospinel forms as solid solutions with magnetite at high temperatures and reducing conditions, and grains crystallized from some
basalt-
gabbro magmas are rich in the ulvospinel component. The ulvospinel component tends to oxidize to magnetite plus
ilmenite during subsolidus cooling of the host rocks, and the ilmenite so produced may form apparent
exsolution (trellis type) laminae in
magnetite. The texture was once interpreted as indicating solid solution between ilmenite and magnetite, until the oxidation reaction and resultant textures were reproduced in laboratory experiments first described by Buddington and Lindsley (1964, Journal of Petrology 5, p. 310-357). The results are important to
plate tectonics because magnetite is an important recorder of rock magnetism.
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