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Garnet Mineral Information

Garnet’s history dates back to the Bronze Age (over 5,000 years ago), when it was a very popular gemstone. Garnet is a family of minerals that have similar physical and crystalline properties. Garnet is found in a wide variety of metamorphic rocks and some igneous rocks. Garnet is one of the most common nesosilicates but it has a complex structure. The garnet formula is (Mg, Fe, Ca or Mn) with Al2Si3O12. Garnet is very common in gneiss and mica slate. Garnet is a very abundant gem and can be easily found in many parts of the world. Garnet crystallizes in rhombic dodecahedrons and trapezohedrons. Garnet is a natural abrasive that is still commonly used in woodworking. The name garnet is derived from the Greek word “granatum” or pomegranate seed. One of the oldest gemstones in history, garnet is the birthstone for January.

Garnet is a beautiful stone that comes in a wide range of colors. A popular garnet is chrome pyrope, whose color rivals ruby. Pyrope garnet is the well-known deep red garnet. Garnet is also found in colors ranging from green to orange to brown to black. Almandine garnet is the traditional Indian garnet, which is a very dark purplish-red color. Andradite garnet is usually black and of no interest in the gem trade, but a variety called “Demantoid” is a vivid green. The yellowish green or Val Malenco garnet color is typical of Fe3+. One of the most sought after varieties of gem garnet is the fine green grossular garnet from Kenya and Tanzania called tsavorite. Rhodolite Garnet from Mozambique is an elite garnet that cuts a brilliant red with fiery sparkles. Hessonite garnet is a genuine garnet, but with a reddish-brown or orange color. Malaya Garnet is usually found between Kenya and Tanzania, especially around the Umba Valley region, which is well known for its buried treasures. Mandarin Garnet is an extreme rarity in the Spessartine family.

Almandine is the most common garnet and the most widely used garnet gem. Almandine, Fe3Al2(SiO4)3 (Iron aluminum silicate), is a mineral from the family of tetrahedral silicate garnets. Almandine garnet is a smooth, transparent stone with a rich red color that owes its color to the presence of iron. Connecticut is one of the world’s best sources of almandine garnet, named a state mineral by the 1977 General Assembly. Although almandine garnets (also known as “almandines”) are the most common variety of garnets, those bearing the star are not they are not common. Most almandine garnets are mined in India and Brazil. Iron-rich almandine is widespread in metamorphic rocks such as schists and gneisses and in granitic igneous rocks.

Pyrope is the only garnet that always has a red hue. The pure pyrope is extremely rare and would be colorless (it is allochromatic); most red gem garnets called pyropes contain an appreciable almandine component. This compliment is one of the so-called “indicator minerals” appreciated in diamond prospecting. Pyrope is commonly purple-red, orange-red, crimson, or dark red in color; and almandine is deep red, brownish-red, brownish-black, or violet-red. It was the pyrope garnet featured in the ancient Talmudic legend, which held that the only light in Noah’s Ark was provided by a huge red garnet. The Czech Republic is one of the few places where the Pyrope variety of garnet is found.

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