My old professor told me to skip the garnet in that Vermont schist, and he was dead wrong

Honestly, back in my field camp, Dr. Carson said the small red crystals in the Green Mountain schist were just biotite with iron staining. I wrote it down and moved on. Last year, I was re-examining my samples and decided to do a scratch test anyway. Turns out they were almandine garnets, about 2-3mm across, which totally changes the metamorphic grade story for that whole outcrop near Rutland. I basically ignored a key mineral for a decade because of one piece of bad advice. Has anyone else had a trusted source steer them wrong on an ID that later mattered?

4 comments

4 Comments

susan_allen1mo ago

Hear that, reminds me of ray643's mylonite story.

robin89610d ago

Started a creek gravel mapping project once and accidentally called a chunk of serpentine a "weird green pebble." Never been so humbled by a rock.

ray6431mo ago

My structural geology professor in '98 insisted a weird cleavage was jointing. It was mylonite, and that mistake cost me a week of mapping.

matthew_west1mo ago

My high school earth science teacher swore the local creek gravel was just quartzite. Took a college trip back and found a decent chunk of jade. He retired before I could tell him.