What is "vlasovite"

n. (context mineralogy English) A monoclinic-prismatic colorless mineral containing oxygen, silicon, sodium, and zirconium.

Vlasovite is a rare inosilicate (chain silicate) mineral with sodium and zirconium, with the chemical formula NaZrSiO. It was discovered in 1961 at Vavnbed Mountain in the Lovozero Massif, in the Northern Region of Russia. The researchers who first identified it, R P Tikhonenkova and M E Kazakova, named it for Kuzma Aleksevich Vlasov (1905–1964), a Russian mineralogist and geochemist who studied the Lovozero massif, and who was the founder of the Institute of Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Crystal Chemistry of Rare Elements, Moscow, Russia.