Diamond Lover answers:

Check out this page for some guidelines on firing garnet: http://www.gemresources.com/info/index.php?page=showinfo&item=29&name=Gemstone%20Firing%20Tests

Diamond Lover answers:

I think the RI is a unique property of a mineral and will not vary, if you use different refractometers.
The Ref Index of Almandine is 1.730 - 1.760
Natural spinel usually has a refractive index of 1.71, while the RI of synthetic is higher, 1.72-1.73

Diamond Lover answers:

Two quick notes: the word is spelled Amandine for recepies, and while the is a gemstones site, we all have to to eat so, I will answer...

I have never heard of cod being used for an amandine. It would seem to me that cooking it a la amandine would flake it and break it up but maybe it would work with cod tails.

Anyway, the basic (simple) recipe for a la amandine, usually done with trout or a similar type of fish is to split the fish lengthwise (not separating the filets - the skin connecting them should remain) and gut it. Dip into milk and then flour. Melt mix of 2/3 non-salted butter and 1/3 salted butter into a fry pan over medium to medium high heat (not quite hot enough for butter to get too brown or smoke). Grill fish, flesh side first. When turning fish to skin side add slivered almonds to pan. When fish is done remove to plate and pour most of butter onto it. Replace pan onto heat and raise heat. Stir, until almonds begin to brown and then pour almonds and remaining butter onto fish.

Best enjoyed with a good reisling or pinot blanc wine. But I would likely select a different wine, maybe a muscadet or a non-assertive chardonnay or a white dao or similiar, if I did the recipe with codfish.

Diamond Lover answers:

Almandine belongs to the "garnet group" of minerals commonly found within metamorphic rock and associated with ultramafic igneous rock formations. Garnet is classified as a nesosilicate in the Silicate mineral group.

Associated Minerals are micas, staurolite, quartz and feldspars

Diamond Lover answers:

Here is a useful analogy, compare the 4.6 billion years of geologic time to the life of a 46 year-old man. Each year of the man's life equals 100 million years of the Earth's history.

This analogy continues to be easy to use if the latest scientific evidence changes the age of the Earth...