Hessonite - Ochsenriegel, Moschkogel Mt. - Weinebene area, Koralpe Mts, Carinthia, Austria

Did you have this specimen verified with more than a visual ID? The reason I ask is that we have the Hessonite garnet and Vesuvianite in the same ore bodies and this appears to be a Vesuvianite.It maybe mixed in with some Hessonite and there color may be identical: making it hard to ID without a assay, XRF, or somthing of that nature.

The main xl face, a quadrilateral, is a rhombic dodecahedral face characteristic of garnets.The type of garnet requires analysis, unless ther locality is well known to produce only one sort. The indistinct xls surrounding the garnet could well be vesuvianite, if it occurs with the same colour as the garnet. Hardness, measured with care, would tell the difference. Thanks for pointing this out.

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This piece consits of pure hessonite xls ( analysed by Dr. Niedermaier), and partly cristalline quartz coating.
The vesuvianite crystals from this locality showing a stuby column habit and brownished color, up to 2 cm in lenght, and flat termination faces - so its easy to differentiate the two minerals only with visual impact from this old known occurence.

Thanks for the speedy reply Gerd. The columnar xls surrounding the dodec are hessonite too? That is, there is no vesuvianite present in the photo?

I also can't see any vesuvianite.

Thanks Uwe. Resolved