Monday, January 11, 2010

January Birthstones - Garnet & Emerald

January Birthstones - Garnet & Emerald



Garnet is the Traditional, Modern and Ayurvedic Birthstone for January. The name "garnet" may come from either the Middle English word gernet meaning 'dark red', or the Latin granatus ("grain"), possibly a reference to the Punica granatum ("pomegranate"), a plant with red seeds similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals. Six common species of garnet are recognized by their chemical composition. They are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite. Garnet has a Mohs scale hardness of 6.0 to 7.5 and can is found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colorless.

Emerald is the Mystical Birthstone for January. Emeralds are a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6,) colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium.[1] Beryl has a hardness of 7.5 - 8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness.[1] Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor. The word "emerald" comes from Latin smaragdus, via Greek smaragdos, its original source being a Semitic word izmargad or the Sanskrit word, marakata, meaning "emerald" or "green".

See more Garnets & Emeralds here.

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