An Interesting Rose Quartz from Madagascar
So far, Mr. Danet has cut about 200 stones, the largest of which weighs 27 ct. On examining the material with a loupe, he noticed that the green inclusions had a shape and color that were typical of diopside. Also present were orange hessonite-like inclusions and some very thin needles.
Mr. Danet donated to GIA a light pink 3.83 ct oval brilliant cut (figure 36) and three pieces of rough that contained obvious dark green and bright orange transparent-to-translucent inclusions. The faceted gem was confirmed as rose quartz by standard gemological testing. It contained a relatively large green inclusion adjacent to an orange inclusion (figure 37) that were both visible through the table facet and made excellent targets for Raman microanalysis. As suggested by Mr. Danet, the green inclusions were indeed diopside and the orange crystals were grossular. While we have encountered garnets before as inclusions in rose quartz (from Sri Lanka), this is the first time this combination of inclusions has been observed in rose quartz from any locality. As an added bonus, the very small blade-like to acicular inclusions in the stone were identified as epidote.
Figure 37. The green inclusions in this rose quartz from Madagascar proved to be diopside, and the orange crystalline masses were identified as grossular. Also present are some needles of epidote. Photomicrograph by J. I. Koivula; field of view 2.7 mm.
