barriirit

Barriirit is a fictional mineral name commonly cited in worldbuilding and teaching examples about mineral nomenclature. In the imagined geology, barriirit is a rare hydrated silicate that forms in hydrothermal systems under high temperature and low oxygen. The name derives from the Barrier Range in the fictional setting, and the -irit suffix follows conventional mineral naming patterns.

In the hypothetical occurrence, barriirit crystals are described as slender prisms or bladed flakes, typically colorless to pale green, with a vitreous to pearly luster. It is said to crystallize in the monoclinic system and to occur in grains up to a few centimeters in size. Reported hardness is around 6 on the Mohs scale, with a specific gravity near 3.0–3.3. The proposed chemical composition is a hydrated silicate with trace substitutions of rare earth and transition metals, but no fixed empirical formula is universally cited.

Geology and formation: Barriirit is described as forming through metasomatic alteration of pre-existing silicate rocks during regional metamorphism and hydrothermal circulation, often in association with magnetite, calcite, and chlorite. Distribution is restricted in the fictional setting to a few geologically mapped zones in the Barrier Range.

Significance: As a teaching and worldbuilding device, barriirit helps illustrate how mineral properties, formation environments, and naming conventions interrelate. It is not a recognized mineral in real-world catalogs, and references to it appear in hypothetical or speculative contexts rather than scientific databases.