Entry № 216
Green Garnet
Grossular / Uvarovite / Tsavorite
The garnet family's green branch — grassland instead of ember.
Chakra
Heart
Element
Earth · Fire
Zodiac
Taurus · Leo
I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Green garnet is worked with as a stone of committed generosity, held when a practitioner needs to give freely without losing structure. It carries garnet's characteristic loyalty in the register of the heart rather than the root.
- Chakra
- Heart
- Element
- Earth · Fire
- Zodiac
- Taurus · Leo
- Keynote
- The garnet family's green branch — grassland instead of ember.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Green garnet is a colour subset of the garnet group. Grossular Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃ gives yellow-greens; when vanadium and chromium substitute into the aluminium site the result is tsavorite, the most valuable green garnet, first described from Tsavo in East Africa in 1968. Uvarovite Ca₃Cr₂(SiO₄)₃ is the chromium end-member and produces small but intensely emerald-green crystals in chromite-bearing rocks.
- Formula
- Ca₃(Al,Cr)₂(SiO₄)₃
- System
- Isometric
- Hardness
- 7 – 7.5 (Mohs)
- Provenance
- Kenya · Tanzania (tsavorite), Russia (uvarovite), Canada, Pakistan
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- Ca₃(Al,Cr)₂(SiO₄)₃
- Crystal System
- Isometric
- Mohs Hardness
- 7 – 7.5 (Mohs)
- Density
- 3.57 – 3.77 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.734 – 1.750
- Provenance
- Kenya · Tanzania (tsavorite), Russia (uvarovite), Canada, Pakistan
- Color Origin
- Yellow-green (grossular), vivid green (tsavorite), deep emerald (uvarovite)
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Green Hopeite
A rare pale-green mineral from oxidised zinc deposits.
