Purple Garnets from East Africa

Cara Williams¹, Bear Williams¹, George R. Rossman², Brendan M. Laurs³, Don Hoover⁴

¹Stone Group Labs, Jefferson City, Missouri, USA
²Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
³San Diego County, CA, USA
⁴Springfield, Missouri, USA

Attractive purple garnets have recently been produced from East Africa. The more intensely purple garnet from Mozambique has a lower manganese content responsible for less absorption in the 400-440 nm region of the spectrum. Its formula is (Mg_1.41Fe_1.50Ca _0.06Mn_0.13)Al_2.02Si_2.99O₁₂

Revised 21-Jan-2016