3.3" Sharp Andradite Garnet Cluster - Stanley Butte, Arizona

Here we have a beautiful, 3.3" wide specimen of classic andradite garnets collected from the Stanley Butte area in Graham County, Arizona. They bear dodecahedral structure, excellent luster, and golden-green to brown coloration.

Andradite is a species of the garnet group, and although not as well-known as some other types of garnets, such as Almandine or pyrope, it is the most lustrous. It tends to be opaque, so most andradite is not gemstone-quality. It occurs in skarns developed in contact-metamorphosed impure limestones or calcic igneous rocks; in chlorite schists and serpentinites; and in alkalic igneous rocks, often titaniferous.

Andradite comes in three varieties: melanite, colored by titanium substitutions for iron in its formula; topazolite, a rare and yellow-green variety; and demantoid, a striking green variety that is one of the world's rarest and most valuable gemstones.

Garnets are nesosilicates with the general formula X3Y2(SiO4)3. There are many species of garnet, including pyrope, almandine, 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.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Andradite
LOCATION
Stanley Butte, Stanley Mining District, Santa Teresa Mts., Graham Co., Arizona
SIZE
3.3 x 1.9"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#245060