Yellow Cream Mookaite Sphere – Australia Wonderful Mookaite Sphere - High Quality Mookaite Jasper - Collector's Sphere - Height: 69 mm - Width: 69 mm- 434 g

Gorgeous Mookaite Jasper sphere, carefully hand polished to bring out its vibrant kaleidoscope of colors.
Mookaite is a silicate mineral from the same vein as quartz, defined as a form of chalcedony, but geologists argue that it is technically a silicified (silicate-rich) form of the rock porcelanite.
Mookaite is constructed from the fossilized remains of microscopic aquatic creatures, and some rare pieces may even contain trace fossils from the age of the dinosaurs.
This stone is found only in Australia and is named after Mooka Creek, where it is found in Western Australia.
Over a hundred million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous period, microscopic sea creatures called Radiolarians died and sank to the seabed in an area of Western Australia called Mooka Creek.
Their hard silica shells and mineral-rich skeletons decayed on the seafloor, forming sediment.
As sea levels receded and groundwater rich in silica and other minerals seeped into the sediments, these fossilized remains were buried in ever-deeper layers of sedimentary rock, forming Mookaite.
The vibrant colors and patterns of Mookaite are caused by these other minerals leaching from the groundwater, such as manganese and iron.
Consequently, this type of rock is called Radiolarite after the creatures from which it is formed, and more specifically the rocks from which Mookaite is mined are called Windalia Radiolarite after the name of the Australian area where the geological formation is found.
The gemstone Mookaite from this formation often contains opaline and chalcedonic elements and tends to form in nodules, from which it is mined, cut, and polished into colored gems.
This rock is quite fragile and fractures easily, which means that specimens often show defects, cavities, and holes, which only enhance the rusticity and character of the stone.