This specimen consists of three LARGE perfectly formed, sharp, andradite crystals intergrown on top of a mass of smaller garnets. The dodecahedra are very sharp and have a stepped pattern of growth covering the diamond shaped faces. There is still a fair bit of clay on the specimen that comes of easily making it a potentially great piece to further clean and really make an even more astounding specimen!!
This is an example of one of three types of andradite garnet, namely the variety Melanite, named after the Greek word "melanos", meaning black, due to the presence of Titanium. These intergrown dodecahedral crystals occur in skarns in contact metamorphosed, impure limestones. The matrix is composed of massive albite, a plagioclase feldspar mineral. From the famous Draa-Tafilalet region of Morocco.
