How to Identify Grossularite Garnet Rocks

How to Identify Grossularite Garnet Rocks

• 1

  Look at the stone garnet is found in. Typical grossularite is a brownish-green garnet from Siberia. It looks like a potato until you see the crystals and grains inside. Grossularite can be colorless, white, gray, yellow, many shades of green, brown, pink, red or black. Though all garnet rocks have the same general formula, grossularite is a combination of calcium and aluminum.

• 2

  Look at the color of the crystals. Garnet comes in every color except blue, and some color-changing garnet can even look blue. grossular garnet is often green, but can also be brown, orange, pink or yellow. Green tsavorite is one of the most popular and is very rare. It can be forest green, emerald green, spring green or blue green. It's very refractive and sparkles radiantly.

• 3

  Find grossularite farnet rocks in certain geographical locations. The part of Africa near Tanzania and Kenya bush country, called the Tsavo park area, was once thought to be the only area tsavorite came from, but it has also been found in Madagascar and Afghanistan. White to light-green grossularite garnet rocks have been found in California in Orange, Butte, Tulare, Fresno, El Dorado and Siskiyou counties. Large apple-green grossularite garnet rocks were found in Beaver County in Utah.

• 4

  Check the hardness of the stone. Grossular garnet has a hardness of about 7, which makes it easy to polish and cut. An emerald has a hardness of 7, too, but grossularite garnet is more durable.

• 5

  Notice the transparency. Grossularite garnets are transparent or translucent. Though many gemstones need to be burned or oiled to achieve shine, grossularite garnet doesn't need it.

• 6

  Think of the name grossularia, where the name grossularite comes from. Grossularia means gooseberry, a fruit that looks like the light green-grossularite from Siberia.