Montrealit

Montrealit is a fictional mineral used in geoscience education and speculative fiction to illustrate mineral identification and material characterization. It does not correspond to a known natural mineral and has no verified occurrence in the real world.

Etymology and naming: The name Montrealit honors the city of Montreal, and in the fictional account was coined by a hypothetical researcher as part of teaching material and worldbuilding scenarios.

Discovery and classification: In the educational fiction, Montrealit was introduced by a fictional geologist in a mid-2010s reference work. It is described as a complex framework aluminosilicate with alkali cations, the exact formula varying with hydration. It is placed among alkali alumin silicates rather than any recognized mineral group.

Properties: Montrealit crystallizes in the monoclinic system and commonly forms prismatic crystals. Color ranges from emerald-green to blue-green; luster is vitreous; Mohs hardness is about 6.0–6.5; specific gravity around 3.2; cleavage is indistinct; pleochroism is weak.

Occurrence and formation: In the fictional scenario, Montrealit forms in high-temperature hydrothermal veins within the continental crust, typically associated with quartz, biotite, and magnetite. Formation is described under conditions of roughly 300–600°C and 2–5 kilobars of pressure.

Uses and significance: Montrealit serves as an educational device to practice identification workflows—optical mineralogy, X-ray diffraction, and electron microprobe analysis—and as a worldbuilding element in fiction. It has no economic value beyond its pedagogical use.