Almandine

specimen number:
2312540

location:
Salida, Chaffee Co., Colorado, USA

description:
A loose sharp lustrous crystal of almandine. The specimen comes with an antique label dating to the 1960s. Classic Colorado specimen.

Salida, located in Chaffee County, Colorado, has a rich history tied to both the mid-19th-century mining boom and its strategic position along the Arkansas River valley following the arrival of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in 1880. Geologically, the surrounding region features a complex basement of Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks, including schists, gneisses, and granites, which were later shaped by intense faulting and tectonic activity associated with the Rio Grande Rift. Mineralogically, the area is especially famous for almandine, a prominent iron-aluminum member of the garnet group that forms deep red to brownish-red dodecahedral or trapezohedral crystals within the regional micaceous schists, frequently weathering out into high-grade alluvial deposits.

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