Yes AtomRat - but I find knowledge all adds to the fun. My job sometimes leaves me alone or in small groups in the bush for weeks at a time, and I find reading local history, rocks and minerals, plants and about local people makes it more interesting (plus some fishing and 4x4 driving).
Lefty, true pyrope is Mg3Al2(SiO4)3, so it is a Mg and Al -rich mineral like some I mention above. Guess where you usually get it? In peridotites or serpentinites because they are Mg and Al-rich and low in alkalis (as soon as a rock has things like Ca and Fe in quantity, different garnets form). So expect it with sapphires and rubies (corundum) and spinel-group minerals, but not in granite-only areas. Serpentinite is usually formed by peridotite being altered by hot water, so they are similar rocks. However some pyrope also occurs in certain types of metamorphic rocks. Kimberlite that diamond occurs in is a type of peridotite that contains a special violet to purple pyrope with many percent Cr, and the presence of these in soil or streams indicates you are in a good area for diamonds (they are one of the main diamond prospecting tools, used routinely by De Beers).
You guys starting to see a pattern in all this?
So AtomRat, it is not just how they got there, but how to know where to look for them - if you like green gem garnets then look in areas with limestone next to granite (they are Ca garnets, limestone is CaCO3) - if you like orange garnets (can reach hundreds of dollars per caret), look at metamorphosed Mn layers - the orange garnets (the old name is calderite) are Mn-Ca garnets. Turquoise? Look at P-rich black slates (eg Edi in Victoria), as torquoise is a P-mineral coloured green and blue by traces of copper, which is common in very black, carbon-rich slates. And on it goes.....depends partly if you only prospect where others have found things before, or want to try new areas as well.
Lefty, true pyrope is Mg3Al2(SiO4)3, so it is a Mg and Al -rich mineral like some I mention above. Guess where you usually get it? In peridotites or serpentinites because they are Mg and Al-rich and low in alkalis (as soon as a rock has things like Ca and Fe in quantity, different garnets form). So expect it with sapphires and rubies (corundum) and spinel-group minerals, but not in granite-only areas. Serpentinite is usually formed by peridotite being altered by hot water, so they are similar rocks. However some pyrope also occurs in certain types of metamorphic rocks. Kimberlite that diamond occurs in is a type of peridotite that contains a special violet to purple pyrope with many percent Cr, and the presence of these in soil or streams indicates you are in a good area for diamonds (they are one of the main diamond prospecting tools, used routinely by De Beers).
You guys starting to see a pattern in all this?
So AtomRat, it is not just how they got there, but how to know where to look for them - if you like green gem garnets then look in areas with limestone next to granite (they are Ca garnets, limestone is CaCO3) - if you like orange garnets (can reach hundreds of dollars per caret), look at metamorphosed Mn layers - the orange garnets (the old name is calderite) are Mn-Ca garnets. Turquoise? Look at P-rich black slates (eg Edi in Victoria), as torquoise is a P-mineral coloured green and blue by traces of copper, which is common in very black, carbon-rich slates. And on it goes.....depends partly if you only prospect where others have found things before, or want to try new areas as well.