3.4" Polished Pilbara Agate Section - Oldest Known Agate

Polished Pilbara Agate Section - Oldest Known Agate #239865

This is a piece of banded agate from a location near Nullagine in Western Australia. These agates are found in the Maddina Basalt and studies have shown that these are probably the oldest agates in the world, with an age in excess of 2 billion years. This colorful agate specimen has been cut flat and polished to a glossy finish on one side.

It comes with an acrylic display stand.

Agate is a variety of microcrystalline quartz (chalcedony) that displays translucence and, in some cases, banding. Agate primarily forms when silica-rich fluids fill pockets within rocks and/or fossils, depositing the silica along the walls of the rock. This process can result in banding patterns, as the compositions and impurities of these depositing fluids change over time. These banding patterns can either form as flat layers, creating linear patterns known as waterline agate, or as rounded layers, forming more common ring-like patterns. These patterns depend on the surfaces available for deposition.

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