Hermiteet

Hermiteet is a fictional mineral introduced for educational and speculative purposes to illustrate mineral naming and classification. The name honors the 19th‑century French mathematician Charles Hermite, with the suffix -et chosen for stylistic reasons.

Description: In imagined literature, Hermiteet is a metallic or submetallic mineral with a steel‑gray to black color and a bright metallic luster. It is described as crystallizing in a primitive or low‑symmetry system, commonly forming elongate prismatic crystals and coarse aggregates. Reported Mohs hardness ranges from 5 to 6, and the streak is white to gray.

Composition and occurrence: The fictional composition is iron‑rich, with minor silicate content and trace elements. Hermiteet is said to form in high‑temperature hydrothermal veins within mafic or basaltic rocks and to occur alongside magnetite, hematite, and various sulfides in the same paragenetic assemblage.

Geological context and use: Because Hermiteet is a constructed mineral, it has no verified natural occurrence or industrial use. It is employed in textbooks, classroom exercises, and speculative datasets to demonstrate methods of mineral description, paragenesis, and the process of naming new minerals.

See also: hematite, magnetite, ilmenite, olivine.