|
Garnet
Garnet is a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. Garnets are most often seen in red, but are available in a wide variety of colors spanning the entire spectrum. more...
 Home
Necklaces & Pendants
 Chains
Chokers
Lariats
Other Styles
Pendants, Lockets
 3-Stone
 Cubic Zirconia
Diamond
Other Stones
Angel
Animals
Astrology
Cameos
Circle
Cluster
Coin
Cross
Amethyst
Crystal
Cubic Zirconia
Diamond
Garnet
Gold, Plate/Fill (w/o Stone)
Gold, Solid (w/o Stone)
Jade
Other Stones, Materials
Pearl
Pearl, Imitation
Sapphire
Silver (w/o Stone)
Topaz
Dog Tag
Flowers
Diamond
Gold, Plate/Fill (w/o Stone)
Gold, Solid (w/o Stone)
Jade
Other Stones, Materials
Pearl
Pearl, Imitation
Hearts, Love
Amethyst
Crystal
Cubic Zirconia
Diamond
Garnet
Gold, Plate/Fill (w/o Stone)
Gold, Solid (w/o Stone)
Jade
Other Stones, Materials
Pearl
Pearl, Imitation
Ruby
Sapphire
Topaz
Horseshoe
Letters, Initials
Lockets
Diamond
Gold, Plate/Fill (w/o Stone)
Gold, Solid (w/o Stone)
Other Stones, Materials
Silver (w/o Stone)
Other Styles
Solitaires
Abalone
Agate
Amazonite
Amber
Amethyst
Aquamarine
Carnelian
Chalcedony
Citrine
Coral
Crystal
Cubic Zirconia
Diamond
Emerald
Garnet
Glass
Iolite
Jade
Jasper
Labradorite
Lapis
Moonstone
Mother-of-Pearl
Onyx
Opal
Other Stones, Materials
Pearl
Pearl, Imitation
Peridot
Quartz
Ruby
Sapphire
Sodalite
Tanzanite
Tigers Eye
Topaz
Tourmaline
Turquoise
Stars
Strands/Strings
Tennis, Graduated
Other Wedding Jewelry
Wedding Apparel
Wedding Rings
Wedding Sets
Wedding Supplies
Wholesale Lots
The name "garnet" comes from the Latin granatus ("grain"), possibly a reference to the Punica granatum ("pomegranate"), a plant with red seeds similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals.
Six common varieties of garnet are recognized based on their chemical composition. They are pyrope, almandine, spessartite, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite. The garnets make up two solid solution series; 1. pyrope-almandine-spessarite and 2. uvarovite-grossular-andradite.
Physical Properties
Appearance
Garnets are found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colorless. The rarest of these is the blue garnet, discovered in the late 1990s in Bekily, Madagascar. It is also found in parts of the United States, Russia and Turkey. It changes color from blue-green in the daylight to purple in incandescent light, as a result of the relatively high amounts of vanadium (about 1 wt.% V2O3). 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. Because of their color changing quality, this kind of garnet is often mistaken for Alexandrite.
Garnet’s 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
Garnets are nesosilicates having the general formula X3Y2(SiO4)3. The X site is usually occupied by divalent cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+) and the Y site by trivalent cations (Al3+, Fe3+, Cr3+) in an octahedral/tetrahedral framework with 4− providing the tetrahedra. Garnets are most often found in the dodecahedral crystal habit, but are also commonly found in the trapezohedron habit. (Note: the word "trapezohedron" as used here and in most mineral texts refers to the shape called a Deltoidal icositetrahedron in solid geometry.) They crystallize in the isometric 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 pieces are formed.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
|
|
