Names in Gemology – Tauson Lev Vladimirovich

Tauson Lev Vladimirovich (October 27, 1917 - November 23, 1989), an outstanding Soviet geologist and geochemist, member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1981). Founder of the scientific direction "Chemical geodynamics of magmatic processes". Being the head (1967-1989) of the working group on applied geochemistry of the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry, he created the first department of prospecting and exploration geochemistry in the USSR at the Irkutsk Polytechnic Institute, which created opportunities for the widest possible application of geochemical methods for prospecting for mineral deposits in the process. In gemology, the name of Lev Vladimirovich is noted in the mineral tausonite, a natural analogue of synthetic strontium titanate (one of the most famous commercial names of which is “fabulite”), which has been widely used as an imitation of diamond since its synthesis (1953, under the direction of L. Merker) in the National Lead Company in the USA [a piece of New Jersey]) and before the creation of cubic zirconia (1970, at the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow). The mineral tausonite, first found in 1981 in the metasomatites of the Murun massif and approved as a new mineral in 1982, unfortunately has no use as an object of gemology due to its dark (almost black) color and lack of transparency in natural samples. However, his discovery made it possible to transfer the artificial material strontium titanate into the category of synthetic stones, namely synthetic tausonite.