Miserite (FOV 4.4 x 6.1 mm) Locality: Poudrette quarry (Demix quarry; Uni-Mix quarry; Desourdy quarry; Carrière Mont Saint-Hilaire), Mont Saint-Hilaire, La Vallée-du-Richelieu RCM, Montérégie, Québec, Canada Description: One of several clusters on a specimen ~ 2 x 3 cm. Ex Ron Waddell. Found in the early 1980s. MOB coll. — Photo: Modris Baum · Public domain
Miserite
Miserite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the silicate class, with the chemical formula K₁.₅₋ₓ(Ca,Y,REE)₅[Si₆O₁₅][Si₂O₇](OH,F)₂·yH₂O.
It crystallizes in the triclinic crystal system (space group P-1).
Key properties: Mohs hardness 5.5–6; specific gravity 2.84–2.93; White streak; Vitreous luster; optically biaxial.
IMA symbol Mis, grandfathered status — known before the IMA’s founding, named in 1950.
Found in banded metamorphosed shales at the contact with a dike of nepheline syenite (Wilson Springs, Arkansas, USA); in a carbonatite vein (Kipawa Lake, Canada).
It is found associated with Wollastonite, orthoclase, aegirine (Wilson Springs, Arkansas, USA); “hornblende, " eudialyte, scapolite, fluorite, mosandrite (Kipawa Lake, Canada).
The name refers to Dr. Hugh Dinsmore Miser (1884-1969), geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.