ANDRADITE VAR. DEMANTOID

Beautiful green demantoid garnets are scattered all along a large piece of skarn matrix, with smaller orange garnets visible along the sides. Though a few of the demantoids are slightly dinged, many more are in perfect condition, and all of them add together to make the whole piece pop out.

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Demantoid garnet from Belqeys Mountain, Iran, occurs within serpentinized ultramafic host rocks. The garnets form through metasomatic processes involving hydrothermal fluids rich in calcium, iron, and silica interacting with serpentinite. These fluids circulate through fractures in the host rock at temperatures between 300-400°C. The resulting demantoid crystals display characteristic dodecahedral morphology and range from <1mm to 2cm in size. They frequently exhibit distinctive "horsetail" inclusions of chrysotile fibers, a characteristic feature of serpentinite-hosted demantoid deposits. The garnets typically show high chromium content, contributing to their distinctive bright green coloration. This deposit represents a typical example of low- to medium-temperature hydrothermal mineralization within an ophiolitic complex.