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search Tumble polished unakite pebbles Unakite carving  First
discovered in the United States in the Unakas mountains of North
Carolina from which it gets its name, unakite is an altered
granite composed of pink orthoclase feldspar, green epidote, and
generally colorless quartz. It exists in various shades of green
and pink and is usually mottled in appearance. A good quality
unakite is considered a semiprecious stone; it will take a good
polish and is often used in jewelry as beads or cabochons and
other lapidary work such as eggs, spheres and animal carvings.
It is also referred to as epidotized or epidote granite. In some
of the Blue Ridge occurrences, an epidotized augen gneiss is
present exhibiting foliation structures.  The dominant green
epidote in unakite rocks is the metasomatic alteration product
of plagioclase feldspar, while the orthoclase and quartz
crystals remain unaffected.  Unakite can be found as pebbles and
cobbles from glacial drif