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Identity HelpSquare Garnet Crystal ?

18th Aug 2019 21:55 UTCDan Owens

05724160016036901481131.jpg
I find lots of garnets but have never seen a crystal shape like this. Is this common? Is it something other than a garnet? Found panning gold. Very small crystal as are all the garnets I find.

18th Aug 2019 21:59 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

It’s a rhombic dodecahedron, a common crystal form for garnet.

18th Aug 2019 22:02 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager

I don't see anything strange about the shape. What I do find odd is how sharp the edges are for being found while panning for gold.

18th Aug 2019 22:47 UTCDavid K. Joyce Expert

Look on mindat at any any of the garnet photos and you will find hundreds of photos of similar crystal shapes. It is slightly elongated but still a dodecahedron.

18th Aug 2019 23:21 UTCFrank K. Mazdab 🌟 Manager

Although almost certainly a slightly-distorted rhombic dodecahedron of garnet, let me play Devil's Advocate for a moment and let me suggest the possibility of a Yinnietharra-style tourmaline... :-)

Now, I do actually think that's a pic of a garnet.  But it's still fun to recall that a rhombohedron can be derived from a cube by stretching or squashing along a 3-fold rotation axis (of course, that has to be happening internally and not just morphologically), and a rhombic dodecahedron, similarly stretched or squashed, becomes the stubby hexagonal prism (or is it two trigonal prisms?) capped by a rhombohedron that in part make Yinnietharra dravites so interesting (besides their huge size).  Stretch or squash various isometric crystals along different symmetry elements and you can derive the other systems and forms.  It's the elegance of how the crystal systems are related... :-)

19th Aug 2019 14:51 UTCDan Owens

Thanks for the replies. I was used to seeing rounded faceted crystals so the concave one was new to me. I see the shape is the same. Live and learn.

19th Aug 2019 15:46 UTCCecil Cosse

Looks exactly like a Yinnietharra dravite from Australia.  My specimen is a matrix piece with same, but much, much bigger.

Cecil 

19th Aug 2019 23:24 UTCNelse Miller

Some years ago there was an article in Mineral News in which someone reported finding "cubic" garnet crystals while panning for gold.  Speculation in the article was that they were, in reality, highly modified garnet crystals or  cleavage fragments.  The photos showed definite cubes.  I don't know if this was ever resolved.

20th Aug 2019 01:47 UTCMatthew Droppleman

Maybe it recently came loose from a nearby locale on land that’s why it it has sharper edges?
 
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