Greg Parkhurst, Micro mineral club reporter
Let’s cut to it. Garnet was the topic of our latest micro mineral meeting, and we had quite a few friends show up, new and old.
I’ve noticed garnet, an old word for pomegranate, show up in my woodworking shop. You see, if you smash it up really small (the garnet, not the pomegranate) and glue it to some paper, you end up with a terrific abrasive that does wonders to turn rough wood into silky smooth creations.
Go ahead and check out what your sandpaper is made of. Oh yeah, and if you put the garnet into a water jet under very high pressure, you can cut through steel! It seems the hardness of garnet, and its availability, and it’s recyclability, etc, etc, make it the ideal abrasive for this application.
Back to the meeting. Did you go on the field trip to Grants Ridge to look for Spessartine? You’ll be happy to know that a number of these garnets were on display!
Here is a photo with a nice topaz to set off the lovely color of the Spessartine. Garnets include a number of cool minerals including spessartine, almandine, grossular, uvarovite, and a very few others.
Did you know that garnets can be green? Enjoy this specimen photo of a uvarovite from Ural, Russia! Too stunning of a specimen to sand down a 2×4.
Perhaps you have some grossular in your own collection? The micro meeting does often feature larger specimens, and these photos show some larger, dazzling specimens from Quebec, Canada, and Lamoille Co, Vermont.
And speaking of grossular, Hessonite was featured, too, with these examples from Asbestos, Quebec, Canada. Speaking of larger specimens, note this doozy almandine from Warren Co, NY!
Now, a teaser. We were fortunate to have a new AGMC member join us at the micro meeting and show us some of his jaw dropping mineral photos. Here are a couple photos for you to consider this month. What do you see? How were the photos taken? Have fun, and I’ll explain, with his help, in the next micro meeting report.
Please join us on May 20 at the Monte Vista Christian Church on Campus Dr. at 6:30. Bring some cool specimens or unknowns, bring a scope or use one of ours. We look forward to examples our topic: singular micro mineral specimens.
Please ensure they are mounted well so none go missing!