archetypal cubic mineral

Garnet is the archetypal cubic mineral, occurring in a wide range of shake enters Earth's crust and top mantle. Owing to its occurrence, resilience and compositional variety, garnet is used to investigate a wide range of geological processes. Although birefringence is a characteristic feature of unusual Ca–Fe3+ garnet and Ca-rich hydrous garnet, the optical anisotropy that has sometimes been recorded alike (that's, anhydrous Ca–Fe2+–Mg–Mn) garnet is typically associated to interior strain of the cubic framework. Here we show that common garnet with a non-cubic (tetragonal) crystal framework is a lot more extensive compared to formerly thought, occurring in low-temperature, high-pressure metamorphosed basalts (blueschists) from subduction areas and in low-grade metamorphosed mudstones (phyllites and schists) from orogenic belts. Certainly, a non-cubic balance seems typical of common garnet that forms at reduced temperature levels (<450 °C), where it has a characteristic Fe–Ca...