Many of us know that garnet is the birthstone of January and is the perfect gem for women to wear. But what else do you know about garnets? When it comes to the "aristocracy" of garnets, the first reaction of many people must be the fanta stone, tsavorite and emerald cheap promise rings. However, there is a kind of garnet is more precious than them, and many jewelry practitioners have never seen it before. It's called "Rainbow Garnet".

The Rainbow Garnet

Saying the name "rainbow garnet" alone, many people may not be able to imagine what it looks like. Rainbow garnet is a kind of garnet with halo effect, so it is also called halo garnet. Foreign websites generally call it Iridescent Garnet or Rainbow Garnet. However, "rainbow garnet" does not belong to a variety of garnet minerals. Its essence is actually a garnet necklaces for girlfriend with the interference and diffraction of light. This interference and diffraction of light mainly occurs in some andradites. According to research, the rainbow garnet produced in Mexico is a crystalline mineral composed of andradite-essonite.

Take the rainbow garnets produced in Mexico as example, which are often with green and stripe halo. According to research, there is a concentric layered structure inside the rainbow garnet produced in Mexico, which is formed by the overlapping of the crystalline layers of andradite with a higher iron content and essonite with a higher aluminum content. Due to the strong geological effect caused by hydrothermal invasion, the surface of the garnet infinity bracelet crystal layer was repeatedly eroded to form a thin film. The thickness of such a group of composite crystalline layers is generally less than 1 micron, so light interference occurs. To the naked eye, colorful halos appear in the gem. Compared with ordinary andradite, the crystals of rainbow garnet are more fragile, most of the gemstones produced are smaller and the yield is very small.

The halo effect of garnet is rare, and its discovery process is traversal bumpy. Although it was discovered in the Nevada mining area of the United States as early as 1943, the garnet produced at that time did not reach the gem level fingerprint jewelry. Then in calcite mines in Sonora, Mexico, such interference garnets were also found in 1954, but at that time they were considered to be low-quality opals and ignored. It was not until 1985 that at the Sonora Gem Fair, the cut rainbow garnet began to circulate as a gem. Although the "rainbow garnet" really circulated late, but its gorgeous time is like a flash in the pan.

The rainbow garnet produced in Mexico is very famous, but its own output is very small. In addition, mining rights were shelved for nearly a decade, and by the early 1990s, rainbow garnets name bracelet were gradually disappearing from the market. It took only five years from circulation to disappearance.

In addition to Mexico, there is also a rainbow garnet vein in Nara, Japan. In 2004, a group of mineral hobby groups from Nara came to Tianshan Village, Yoshino District, which has been known for its garnet production since ancient times. They unexpectedly discovered this extremely rare gemstone-rainbow garnet, which is the discovery process of Japanese rainbow garnet.

In fact, not only "rainbow garnet", many natural gemstones are facing the fate of extinction. Not only the tanzanite custom birthstone rings mining area in Tanzania and Hetian jade in Xinjiang, but also the rubies we are familiar with are facing an endangered situation. Natural gemstones are "limited editions" of nature, and are even more precious because of their rarity. However, it is not the best choice to take all the beauty as your own. Beauty can be appreciated, can be treasured, but more should be protected.