Red garnets have a long history, but modern gem buyers can pick from a rich palette of garnet colors: greens, oranges, pinkish oranges, deeply saturated purplish reds, and even some blues. Red garnet is one of the most common and widespread of gems. But not all garnets are as abundant as the red ones. A green garnet, tsavorite, is rarer and needs rarer rock chemistries and conditions to form.
Tsavo Park
Campbell Bridges mined tsavorite garnet in Kenya near Tsavo National Park.
Faberge
The imperial Russian jeweler created intricate jewelry designs for demantoid garnet.
3800 BC
A stylish red garnet bead necklace found in a grave in Egypt is more than 5,000 years old.
Facts
- Mineral: Garnet group
- Chemistry:
- Almandine- Fe3Al2(SiO4)3
- Andradite- Ca3Fe2(SiO4)3
- Grossular- Ca3Al2(SiO4)3
- Pyrope- Mg3Al2(SiO4)3
- Rhodolite- (Mg, Fe)3Al2(SiO4)3
- Spessartine- Mn3Al2(SiO4)3
- Color: All colors
- Refractive index: 1.714-1.888
- Birefringence: None
- Specific gravity: 3.47-4.15
- Mohs harness: 6.5-7.5