Garnet

Garnet species are found in many colours including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black and colourless, with reddish shades most common.

A sample showing the deep red color garnet can exhibit.

Garnet species' light transmission properties can range from the gemstone-quality transparent specimens to the opaque varieties used for industrial purposes as abrasives. The mineral's luster is categorized as vitreous (glass-like) or resinous (amber-like).

Crystal structure model of garnet

Garnets are nesosilicates having the general formula X₃Y₂(SiO
₄)₃. The X site is usually occupied by divalent cations (Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn)²⁺ and the Y site by trivalent cations (Al, Fe, Cr)³⁺ in an octahedral/tetrahedral framework with [SiO₄]⁴⁻ occupying the tetrahedra.[4] Garnets are most often found in the dodecahedral crystal habit, but are also commonly found in the trapezohedron habit. They crystallize in the cubic system, having three axes that are all of equal length and perpendicular to each other. Garnets do not show cleavage, so when they fracture under stress, sharp, irregular (conchoidal) pieces are formed

Because the chemical composition of garnet varies, the atomic bonds in some species are stronger than in others. As a result, this mineral group shows a range of hardness on the Mohs scale of about 6.5 to 7.5. The harder species like almandine are often used for abrasive purposes.

For gem identification purposes, a pick-up response to a strong neodymium magnet separates garnet from all other natural transparent gemstones commonly used in the jewelry trade. Magnetic susceptibility measurements in conjunction with refractive index can be used to distinguish garnet species and varieties, and determine the composition of garnets in terms of percentages of end-member species within an individual gem.[5]

• Almandine: Fe₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃
• Pyrope: Mg₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃
• Spessartine: Mn₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃

Almandine in metamorphic rock

Almandine, sometimes incorrectly called almandite, is the modern gem known as carbuncle (though originally almost any red gemstone was known by this name). The term "carbuncle" is derived from the Latin meaning "live coal" or burning charcoal. The name Almandine is a corruption of Alabanda, a region in Asia Minor where these stones were cut in ancient times. Chemically, almandine is an iron-aluminium garnet with the formula Fe₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃; the deep red transparent stones are often called precious garnet and are used as gemstones (being the most common of the gem garnets). Almandine occurs in metamorphic rocks like mica schists, associated with minerals such as staurolite, kyanite, andalusite, and others. Almandine has nicknames of Oriental garnet, almandine ruby, and carbuncle.

Pyrope (from the Greek pyrōpós meaning "fire-eyed") is red in color and chemically an aluminium silicate with the formula Mg₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃, though the magnesium can be replaced in part by calcium and ferrous iron. The color of pyrope varies from deep red to black. Pyrope and spessartine gemstones have been recovered from the Sloan diamondiferous kimberlites in Colorado, from the Bishop Conglomerate and in a Tertiary age lamprophyre at Cedar Mountain in Wyoming.[6]

A variety of pyrope from Macon County, North Carolina is a violet-red shade and has been called rhodolite, Greek for "rose". In chemical composition it may be considered as essentially an isomorphous mixture of pyrope and almandine, in the proportion of two parts pyrope to one part almandine. Pyrope has tradenames some of which are misnomers; Cape ruby, Arizona ruby, California ruby, Rocky Mountain ruby, and Bohemian garnet from the Czech Republic. Another intriguing find is the blue color-changing garnets from Madagascar, a pyrope-spessartine mix. The color of these blue garnets is not like sapphire blue in subdued daylight but more reminiscent of the grayish blues and greenish blues sometimes seen in spinel. However, in white LED light, the color is equal to the best cornflower blue sapphire, or D block tanzanite; this is due to the blue garnet's ability to absorb the yellow component of the emitted light.

Pyrope is an indicator mineral for high-pressure rocks. The garnets from mantle-derived rocks, peridotites, and eclogites commonly contain a pyrope variety.

Spessartine (the reddish mineral)

Spessartine or spessartite is manganese aluminium garnet, Mn₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃. Its name is derived from Spessart in Bavaria. It occurs most often in granite pegmatite and allied rock types and in certain low grade metamorphic phyllites. Spessartine of an orange-yellow is found in Madagascar. Violet-red spessartines are found in rhyolites in Colorado and Maine.

Blue pyrope–spessartine garnets were discovered in the late 1990s in Bekily, Madagascar. This type has also been found in parts of the United States, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Turkey. It changes color from blue-green to purple depending on the color temperature of viewing light, as a result of the relatively high amounts of vanadium (about 1 wt.% V₂O₃).[7]

Other varieties of color-changing garnets exist. In daylight, their color ranges from shades of green, beige, brown, gray, and blue, but in incandescent light, they appear a reddish or purplish/pink color.

This is the rarest type of garnet. Because of its color-changing quality, this kind of garnet resembles Alexandrite.

• Andradite: Ca₃Fe₂(SiO₄)₃
• Grossular: Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃
• Uvarovite: Ca₃Cr₂(SiO₄)₃

Andradite is a calcium-iron garnet, Ca₃Fe₂(SiO₄)₃, is of variable composition and may be red, yellow, brown, green or black. The recognized varieties are topazolite (yellow or green), demantoid (green) and melanite (black). Andradite is found both in deep-seated igneous rocks like syenite as well as serpentines, schists, and crystalline limestone. Demantoid has been called the "emerald of the Urals" from its occurrence there, and is one of the most prized of garnet varieties. Topazolite is a golden-yellow variety and melanite is a black variety.

Grossular garnet from Quebec, collected by Dr John Hunter in the 18th century, Hunterian Museum, Glasgow

Grossular on display at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History. The green gem at right is a type of grossular known as tsavorite.

Grossular is a calcium-aluminium garnet with the formula Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃, though the calcium may in part be replaced by ferrous iron and the aluminium by ferric iron. The name grossular is derived from the botanical name for the gooseberry, grossularia, in reference to the green garnet of this composition that is found in Siberia. Other shades include cinnamon brown (cinnamon stone variety), red, and yellow. Because of its inferior hardness to zircon, which the yellow crystals resemble, they have also been called hessonite from the Greek meaning inferior. Grossular is found in contact metamorphosed limestones with vesuvianite, diopside, wollastonite and wernerite.

Grossular garnet from Kenya and Tanzania has been called tsavorite. Tsavorite was first described in the 1960s in the Tsavo area of Kenya, from which the gem takes its name.[8]

Uvarovite is a calcium chromium garnet with the formula Ca₃Cr₂(SiO₄)₃. This is a rather rare garnet, bright green in color, usually found as small crystals associated with chromite in peridotite, serpentinite, and kimberlites. It is found in crystalline marbles and schists in the Ural mountains of Russia and Outokumpu, Finland.

• Calcium in X site
  • Goldmanite: Ca₃(V³⁺,Al,Fe³⁺)₂(SiO₄)₃
  • Kimzeyite: Ca₃(Zr, Ti)₂[(Si,Al,Fe³⁺)O₄]₃
  • Morimotoite: Ca₃Ti⁴⁺Fe²⁺(SiO₄)₃
  • Schorlomite: Ca₃(Ti⁴⁺,Fe³⁺)₂[(Si,Ti)O₄]₃
• Hydroxide bearing – calcium in X site
  • Hydrogrossular: Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)_3−x(OH)_4x
    • Hibschite: Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)_3−x(OH)_4x (where x is between 0.2 and 1.5)
    • Katoite: Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)_3−x(OH)_4x (where x is greater than 1.5)
• Magnesium or manganese in X site
  • Knorringite: Mg₃Cr₂(SiO₄)₃
  • Majorite: Mg₃(Fe²⁺Si)(SiO₄)₃
  • Calderite: Mn₃Fe³⁺₂(SiO₄)₃

Knorringite is a magnesium-chromium garnet species with the formula Mg₃Cr₂(SiO₄)₃. Pure endmember knorringite never occurs in nature. Pyrope rich in the knorringite component is only formed under high pressure and is often found in kimberlites. It is used as an indicator mineral in the search for diamonds.

Red garnets were the most commonly used gemstones in the Late Antique Roman world, and the Migration Period art of the "barbarian" peoples who took over the territory of the Western Roman Empire. They were especially used inlaid in gold cells in the cloisonné technique, a style often just called garnet cloisonné, found from Anglo-Saxon England, as at Sutton Hoo, to the Black Sea. Thousands of Tamraparniyan gold, silver and red garnet shipments were made in the old world, including to Rome, Greece, the Middle East, Serica and Anglo Saxons; recent findings such as the Staffordshire Hoard and the pendant of the Winfarthing Woman skeleton of Norfolk confirm an established gem trade route with South India and Tamraparni (ancient Sri Lanka), known from antiquity for its production of gemstones.[10][11][12]

Pure crystals of garnet are still used as gemstones. The gemstone varieties occur in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange.[13] In the US it is known as the birthstone for January.[1] It is the state mineral of Connecticut,[14] New York's gemstone,[15] and star garnet (garnet with rutile asterisms) is the state gemstone of Idaho.[16]

Garnet sand is a good abrasive, and a common replacement for silica sand in sand blasting. Alluvial garnet grains which are rounder are more suitable for such blasting treatments. Mixed with very high pressure water, garnet is used to cut steel and other materials in water jets. For water jet cutting, garnet extracted from hard rock is suitable since it is more angular in form, therefore more efficient in cutting.

Garnet paper is favored by cabinetmakers for finishing bare wood.[17]

Garnet sand is also used for water filtration media.

As an abrasive, garnet can be broadly divided into two categories; blasting grade and water jet grade. The garnet, as it is mined and collected, is crushed to finer grains; all pieces which are larger than 60 mesh (250 micrometers) are normally used for sand blasting. The pieces between 60 mesh (250 micrometers) and 200 mesh (74 micrometers) are normally used for water jet cutting. The remaining garnet pieces that are finer than 200 mesh (74 micrometers) are used for glass polishing and lapping. Regardless of the application, the larger grain sizes are used for faster work and the smaller ones are used for finer finishes.

There are different kinds of abrasive garnets which can be divided based on their origin. The largest source of abrasive garnet today is garnet-rich beach sand which is quite abundant on Indian and Australian coasts and the main producers today are Australia and India.[18]

This material is particularly popular due to its consistent supplies, huge quantities and clean material. The common problems with this material are the presence of ilmenite and chloride compounds. Since the material has been naturally crushed and ground on the beaches for past centuries, the material is normally available in fine sizes only. Most of the garnet at the Tuticorin beach in south India is 80 mesh, and ranges from 56 mesh to 100 mesh size.

River garnet is particularly abundant in Australia. The river sand garnet occurs as a placer deposit.[19]

Rock garnet is perhaps the garnet type used for the longest period of time. This type of garnet is produced in America, China and western India. These crystals are crushed in mills and then purified by wind blowing, magnetic separation, sieving and, if required, washing. Being freshly crushed, this garnet has the sharpest edges and therefore performs far better than other kinds of garnet. Both the river and the beach garnet suffer from the tumbling effect of hundreds of thousands of years which rounds off the edges.

New York has garnet as its state gemstone,[24] Connecticut has almandine garnet as its state gemstone,[25] Idaho has star garnet as its state gemstone,[26] and Vermont has grossular garnet as its state gemstone.[27]