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- Jan 26, 2003
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I do not know if anything about this discovery was published in another area of Pricescope; I considered placing it in Colored Gems. But it is of so much general interest that I decided to put it in Hangout.
If I understand the article correctly, nothing definitive has, yet, been determined. However there is a new theory that a fungus causes the striations in in garnets with inclusions. I found that fascinating. Garnets were one of the minerals whose crystal structure we had to examine when I took geology in college.
"Deep red garnets are found all over the world, from Thailand and Sri Lanka to the Adirondacks. They’re even the state gem of New York.
The stones that make their way into rings and necklaces must have a flawless interior. But sometimes garnets are marred with intricate traceries of microscopic tunnels. When Magnus Ivarsson, a geobiologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, first saw these tunnels, he wondered what could be making them.
From the beginning, the researchers looked for alternative explanations. One of the most promising was that grains of another stone wore their way through the garnet. However, the mineral doing the tunneling must be harder than the surrounding substance, and garnets happen to be very, very hard. About the only things that could do that to garnet are diamonds or sapphires. But those aren’t present in significant quantities where these garnets were found, said Dr. Ivarsson. In that area, 'there is basically no mineral grain that can be propelled through a garnet like that,' he said.
Furthermore, the tunnels branch and connect with each other in a very unusual pattern, looking a bit like the structures made by some kinds of single-celled fungus colonies. When the researchers cracked the garnets open, they tested the insides of the tunnels and found signs of fatty acids and other lipids, potential indicators of life.
It’s not unheard-of for microorganisms to live in rocks — endoliths, as such creatures are called, have been found living encased within sandstone in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, among other places. Endoliths can get nutrients from water percolating through rock, or perhaps even dissolve it to feed themselves, while living safely."
For more, go to article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/science/garnets-tunnels-microorganisms.html
If I understand the article correctly, nothing definitive has, yet, been determined. However there is a new theory that a fungus causes the striations in in garnets with inclusions. I found that fascinating. Garnets were one of the minerals whose crystal structure we had to examine when I took geology in college.
"Deep red garnets are found all over the world, from Thailand and Sri Lanka to the Adirondacks. They’re even the state gem of New York.
The stones that make their way into rings and necklaces must have a flawless interior. But sometimes garnets are marred with intricate traceries of microscopic tunnels. When Magnus Ivarsson, a geobiologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, first saw these tunnels, he wondered what could be making them.
From the beginning, the researchers looked for alternative explanations. One of the most promising was that grains of another stone wore their way through the garnet. However, the mineral doing the tunneling must be harder than the surrounding substance, and garnets happen to be very, very hard. About the only things that could do that to garnet are diamonds or sapphires. But those aren’t present in significant quantities where these garnets were found, said Dr. Ivarsson. In that area, 'there is basically no mineral grain that can be propelled through a garnet like that,' he said.
Furthermore, the tunnels branch and connect with each other in a very unusual pattern, looking a bit like the structures made by some kinds of single-celled fungus colonies. When the researchers cracked the garnets open, they tested the insides of the tunnels and found signs of fatty acids and other lipids, potential indicators of life.
It’s not unheard-of for microorganisms to live in rocks — endoliths, as such creatures are called, have been found living encased within sandstone in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, among other places. Endoliths can get nutrients from water percolating through rock, or perhaps even dissolve it to feed themselves, while living safely."
For more, go to article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/science/garnets-tunnels-microorganisms.html
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