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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 in some igneous rocks. Garnet is one of the most common nesosilicates but it has a complex structure. The formula for garnet 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 places around 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 very dark purplish-red in color. Andradite garnet is usually black and has no interest in the gem trade, but a variety called “Demantoid” is a vivid green. The yellowish green or garnet Val Malenco 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. Mozambique Rhodolite Garnet 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 generally 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 from the Spessartine family.
Almandine is the most common garnet and the most widely used garnet gem. Almandine, Fe3Al2(SiO4)3 (iron and aluminum silicate), is a mineral of the tetrahedral silicate garnet family. Almandine Garnet is a smooth, transparent, rich red stone 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. While almandine garnets (also known as “almanditas”) are the most common variety of garnets, those displaying the star do 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. Pure pyrope is extremely rare and would be colorless (it is allochromatic); most red gem garnets called pyropes contain an appreciable almandine component. This pyrope is one of the so-called “indicator minerals” valued 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 that figured in 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.