Wonderful collection of Natural Ethiopian CUTTABLE Rough Opals from 15 to 19 mm approx. All pictures are taken with high resolution camera on bone dry material in order to depict the opals as realistically as possible. Worldwide shipping with registered mail and tracking number. An opal is a hydrated form of silica with a water content ranging from 3 to 21%. Indeed, it is this permeability to water that makes it a hydrophile. Opals are deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl, and basalt. Only precious opals show a variable interplay of internal colors. At microscopic scales, precious opal is composed of silica spheres some 150 to 300 nm in diameter in a hexagonal or cubic close-packed lattice. These ordered silica spheres produce the internal colors by causing the interference and diffraction of light passing through the microstructure of the opal.