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Entry № 202

Garnet in Wollastonite

Grossular Garnet in Wollastonite Skarn

Contact-zone stone where limestone met granite.

Chakra

Heart · Root

Element

Earth · Fire

Zodiac

Taurus · Leo

Garnet in Wollastonite

I. The Metaphysical Reading

How the stone has been held.

Garnet in wollastonite is worked with as a stone of bridged temperaments, useful when a warm impulse has to speak with a cool structure. Practitioners hold that the pale wollastonite translates and the garnet supplies the heat.

Chakra
Heart · Root
Element
Earth · Fire
Zodiac
Taurus · Leo
Keynote
Contact-zone stone where limestone met granite.

II. The Scientific Reading

What the lattice actually does.

Garnet in wollastonite is a classic calc-silicate skarn: limestone or dolomite baked and chemically altered where a granitic intrusion came into contact with it. Calcium liberated from the carbonate combines with silica from the intrusion to grow wollastonite fibres and grossular garnet crystals side by side. The assemblage records a specific pressure-temperature-fluid regime at the contact zone.

Formula
Grossular Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃ in wollastonite CaSiO₃
System
Aggregate (isometric garnet in triclinic wollastonite)
Hardness
4.5 – 7 (Mohs)
Provenance
Mexico (Sonora), USA (California, New York), Pakistan

References & Sources

Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.

Mineral Profile

Fact Sheet

Chemical Formula
Grossular Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃ in wollastonite CaSiO₃
Crystal System
Aggregate (isometric garnet in triclinic wollastonite)
Mohs Hardness
4.5 – 7 (Mohs)
Density
2.85 – 3.60 g/cm³
Refractive Index
1.62 – 1.78 (bulk)
Provenance
Mexico (Sonora), USA (California, New York), Pakistan
Color Origin
White fibrous wollastonite matrix with red-orange grossular garnet

Related Crystals

Stones that share this lattice

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