#MinCup2020 @MineralCup
VOTE (for #garnet)!
#Almandine vs #Corundum?
Although I like both very much, I definitely vote for Almandine GARNET!
(here in the cover photo of Lithos a few yrs ago)

(continues)

Corundum is beautiful, useful, very hard, nice also under the #microscope (left in the contact aureole of Cima d'Asta, Italy; right in xenoliths from La Galite, Tunisia),
BUT, petrologically, it creates (to me) more problems than provide answers

Garnet is a common mineral, its inclusions, chemical composition and zoning, crystallization/deformation relationships provide key information on metamorphic and tectonic processes, including pressure, temperature and age constraints.

#Garnet is beautiful under the microscope (left: Taos, New Mexico; right: Ronda, Spain). We're taught it is the archetypal cubic, isotropic mineral, but...

but it is not always so, even in normal rocks and compositions. (see and cite this paper, please https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51214-9)

Garnet contains #melt inclusions that help understand how the crust melts. These inclusions are so small they've been called "nanogranites". They occur in almost all migmatites.

In places these melt droplets ("embryos" of a granite) are still glassy, like in these garnets from El Hoyazo, Spain.

Inclusions in garnet (quartz, zircon, more to come) help understand the stresses operating during metamorphism and are used as geobarometers.

Therefore, why don't you vote for the beautiful, cool, important, useful, #Almandine?