Uvarovite

Uvarovite is a garnet group mineral, meaning that it’s structurally and compositionally similar to garnets, but unlike garnets, it is green. Uvarovite is named after Count Sergei Semenovitch Uvarov, a Russian statesman who was also quite the rockhound. It’s usually found in Russia, Spain, and Canada.  The photo above is an extreme close-up, and may be misleading.  Uvarovite crystals are usually about 2 mm long, so in “real life” it looks more like a plate of drusy quartz.  Here’s how it looks from a bit farther away:

A plate of tiny green sparkly crystals of uvarovite.

Photo by Rob Lavinsky, retrieved from Mindat http://www.mindat.org/photo-118217.html

This specimen is from the Saranovskii Mine in Russia, and I think it’s quite pretty, don’t you?

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