5.7" Polished Chinese Writing Rock Turtle - California

Chinese writing rock, also known as Chinese writing stone, is a lapidary material that is named for its resemblance to Chinese characters. It's composition is porphyritic basalt, or porphyry, that features groups of plagioclase feldspar crystals in a black basalt matrix.

One of the more uncommon locations this stone came from is Auburn, California, where it was discovered while cutting a highway. The area is now inaccessible, and only a limited amount of the material was recovered before the highway was finished.

Much of the Chinese writing rock now comes out of Western Australia where the material is still collected from multiple outcrops to this day. Canada, Philippines, Alaska, and more also have deposits of similar stone composition as well.