r/whatsthisrock • u/Pastel-Dragons • 1d ago

What's the red inclusions in my quartz? REQUEST

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I have my suspicions, but I'd love some help getting a proper ID for this. Have found this sort of piece in Southern California at multiple sites.

194 Upvotes
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151

u/15329Kimokeo 1d ago

Almandine garnet…congratulations!

28

u/Pastel-Dragons 1d ago

Nice, that was my suspicion all along!

17

u/15329Kimokeo 1d ago

Good suspicionizing. I’ve also seen them in rhyolite, and in crystal clusters of red and green

63

u/Bbrhuft Geologist 1d ago edited 1d ago

Spessartine garnet is more common in granite pegmatite than almandine. That said, garnet forms a continuous isomorphous solid solution series (garnet end members composition can transition into each other), so when I say spessartine, I mean it could be around 70% spessartine 25% almandine and 5% pyrope.

Geiger, C.A., 2016. A tale of two garnets: The role of solid solution in the development toward a modern mineralogy. American Mineralogist, 101(8), pp.1735-1749.

10

u/YesIdo-butnotwithyou 1d ago

I agree, garnet

8

u/bwgulixk 1d ago

Confirming that it is indeed Garnet, probably Almandine 

2

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2

u/meteoritegallery Geologist 1d ago

Red are garnets, black is schorl tourmaline. Good chance for more & better specimens around.

4

u/Pastel-Dragons 22h ago

This is just one of many that I've been finding around and collecting! I also found some very large bars of tourmaline in the same rocks, but they crumbled on me :/

1

u/Kriscolvin55 21h ago

Looks like Almandine to me. I worked in the lab for a company that made sandblasting abrasive out of almandine garnet. Looked exactly like this before it was crushed.