snowball garnet

Pinwheel garnet and snowball garnet are designations sometimes applied to those garnets whose inclusions appear to have been rotated. These garnets occur sporadically in foliated metamorphic rocks. Although their presence in diverse rocks has been interpreted variously, present-day consensus appears to be that they represent rotation during growth…

…crystal—is provided by the so-called snowball garnets, which have spiral trails of inclusions that indicate rotation of either the garnet or the matrix foliation during garnet growth. Postkinematic porphyroblasts typically overgrow all previous fabrics in the rock and may contain trails of mineral inclusions that define microfolds or an earlier…