modemaatorites

Modemaatorites is a fictional mineral described in speculative geology and science fiction literature. The name is derived from the imagined Modema region and the standard mineral suffix -ite. In its described form, modemaatorites is a blue-to-azure, translucent to opaque silicate mineral that crystallizes in a tetragonal system and occurs as prismatic crystals or compact masses. Reported hardness on the Mohs scale is about 6.5, with a vitreous luster and a relatively high refractive index that can give a faint blue flash in bright light. The mineral is proposed to have a complex composition dominated by aluminum and magnesium, with trace iron, titanium, and rare earth elements within a modified feldspathoid-aluminosilicate framework. It is typically non-fluorescent and has a calculated specific gravity around 3.9–4.2.

In the fictional geological setting, modemaatorites forms through metasomatic alteration of aluminous rocks in mid-crustal hydrothermal systems, often associated with quartz, tourmaline, chlorite, and cassiterite. It is described as occurring in isolated pegmatite pockets in the Modema Belt and in subduction-zone–related metamorphic terrains. The crystals are said to exhibit chatoyancy or subtle iridescence due to nanoscale lamellar intergrowths, though practical cutting or faceting can be challenging because of directed cleavage in certain directions.

In fiction, modemaatorites is sometimes mentioned as a potential source of rare earth elements and as a gemstone candidate, valued more for color than durability. The term remains a literary or theoretical construct rather than an entry in real-world mineral databases.