1.4" Garnet Cluster with Calcite & Feldspar - Pakistan

This garnet centered specimen comes from a location in Pakistan, where associations of deep orange/brown garnets, feldspar, golden mica, green epidote, and calcite are typically found. The garnets from this location display a unique pattern, which can be seen along the faces of the crystals when rotated under light.

Garnets are nesosilicates with the general formula X3Y2(SiO4)3. Garnets come in many species, including pyrope, almandine (the most common species), spessartine, uvarovite, andradite and grossular, varieties of which are hessonite, cinnamon-stone, and tsavorite. Garnets are found in a wide variety of colors including red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown, blue, black, pink, and colorless, though reddish shades are the most common.

Calcite, CaCO3, is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate. The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Calcite crystals are trigonal-rhombohedral, though actual calcite rhombohedra are rare as natural crystals. However, they show a remarkable variety of habits including acute to obtuse rhombohedra, tabular forms, and prisms. Calcite exhibits several twinning types adding to the variety of observed forms. It may occur as fibrous, granular, lamellar, or compact. Cleavage is usually in three directions parallel to the rhombohedron form.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Garnet, Calcite & Feldspar
LOCATION
Raskoh, Kharan, Balochistan, Pakistan
SIZE
1.4 x 1.3"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#100391