This specimen consists of one sharp lustrous andradite garnet on an albite matrix. Its dodecahedral faces are stepped and curiously slightly concave. This specimen is an example of melanite, one of three types of andradite garnet. Melanite is names from the Greek word "melanos" meaning black, its blackness due to the presence of Titanium. These intergrown dodecahedral crystals occur in skarns developed in contact metamorphosed, impure limestones. The matrix is made up of massive albite, a plagioclase feldspar mineral. From the famed Draa-Tafilalet region of Morocco.
DDJ
