Where do agates come from?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ม.ค. 2015
- Over the years talking to people about collecting and tumbling agates from the oregon beach it turns out I have never talked to a person that knows where they came from. Agate is silicon dioxide that can fill any void or crack in rock. Agate can be big sheets or masses but people only see the rounded type polished agates.
Thank you very much for this. This is exactly the information I was after.
Wonderful. Greetings from Nor Cal.
Thank's for sharing. I pick them off the beach in Bandon when we do a coast run.
+GPH thankyou that area that at cape meares is great however most of those agates are clear or milky white. But you can find a blue agate there which is very rare.
I finally understand agates thank you sir
Been doing much hiking and finding many in WI. Started at interstate park to see the beginning of ice age trail. Then worked way down following Mississippi. Much rain before hand so stuff was washed up. Best area was near where the WI river lets into Mississippi. Some seem more like jasper. Lots of dark gray looking. So then went back Sunday. It was a bit more dried up that time. Found some amazing g redish purple. Lots of crystals too. Like they seem like they fell outta a stone when the broke rolling down the ridges. One red one looks to have a shrimp in it.
Wow, I would love to see that shrimp agate.
cool. if decide to ever move close to where mom born then know can possibly search some for agates as well. such short visit to that spot probably guess could of looked a little.
Agates can be found in the cliffs and rocks in the middle of Oregon as well, around the Newport and surrounding areas.
Actually, beach agates have a variety of sources. But specifically on the west coast, most come from the cliffs under the ocean. A large area of land used to be underwater, with agates formed and embedded in the cliffs under water. Constant underwater landslides deposited these rocks for erosion and now the ocean has retreated. Each year, storms bring up new material from the depths.
i slipped on the rocks trying to escape the tide and hit so hard on my tailbone it took 3 months to recover.
Ouch! I know exactly how that feels. Sorry you got hurt! I really enjoyed the video.
Thank you Hope you had a good Christmas.
KeyWestBluesX so what do you mean by, "most gemstones are actually types of agate" do you mean that most gemstones are types of quartz?
I don't remember saying that but a lot of gemstones are silicon dioxide and the various names change according to characteristics. All gemstones are not quartz such as diamond is pure carbon-
ouch! the vid is really great tho!
Very cool. I live inland and agates near me are formed in giant seams.
+wBryang Yes silicon dioxide fills most anything. Even the walls of the ancient roman showers are agatized because of the water running down for centuries. I also had lots of "agate plates" and chunks that formed in seams--but threw them out when I moved since nothing could really be done with them such as tumbling. The agates along the Washington and Oregon beaches luckily formed in basalt voids which have lots of gas bubbles--so the agates are already rounded. The dissolved solution has to be mostly silicon--the most abundant element. Some areas are limestone--thus no agates. Caverns with stalagmites are limestone as opposed to silicon dioxide.
KeyWestBluesX Very interesting about the Roman showers. I'm a rock hound wannabe, wish I had your knowledge of stones. Thanks!
I want purchase this stone please help me out
Fuckin killer video!.. Let me tell you how agates are made. Idk what’s better, the post, or the comments. (Posting from rogue river oregon)
Ps Made is an awesome word.
A goofy guy told me superior agates were formed in Omar's.
So once you find agates how do you take them out of the rock?
the rock such as shown in the video gets bashed apart in the surf leaving the hard agates. Agate is silicon dioxide and fills all kinds of seams and voids. If it fills seams they are just plates of agate and cant be tumbled. Opal is another example of silicon dioxide filling voids. But for opals you have to have a cavity that fills and empties repeatedly over a period of time. The dissolved silicon is tiny little spheres floating around that deposit. Under some conditions you get normal agates--under other conditions you get opals. The main point is that silicon is about the most common mineral there is so when it dissolves and gets deposited under various conditions you get various types of agates. Where the confusion comes in is that silicon dioxide is called different names according to its appearance.
Agates are far from being the most common gemstone. You just missed more than 300 other minerals that can be used as gemstones. Agates are merely a type of quartz, when there are countless other minerals all with distinct chemical compositions.
i would love to tell you more ,but,i think youre still guessing...cuz theres way more to that story...kinda close tho..oh..and no tumbling plz and thank you...happy rockin !
Most agates are formed in the cavities or holes in Volcanic rock, from the minerals in ground water leaving deposits over many years. The volcanic rock is just a host rock, as this video shows the agates are only formed in the cavities. As the mineral deposits change from environmental, temperature, or other changes, the deposits also change, causing banding or lines over time. As the soft volcanic rock wears down over time, the agates are freed. The agates don't wear down as much because they are a hard rock.
yes but alot of it is the chemicals move between the atoms of the parent rock--interstitially. Some voids are totally tightly closed not exposed to ground water per se. However some agate cavities DO show evidence of actual liquid getting in and filling the void in layers. Some agates such as geodes or even the ones in the video show that the vapors or even the atoms of the silicon dioxide can coat the inside growing inward till its full. Its complex and many articles point out that the finest details are open to speculation to this day. Volcanic rock such as basalt often has agates because of the many gas bubbles within it. Some harder rock also has agatatized seams in it which of course dont make good agates. The roman bath houses actually are agatized where the water ran so its complex as hell thats for sure
Yes, I only mentioned volcanic rock because that is the most common host rock. It had cavities, which were formed from the " bubbles" you mentioned when it was lava and cooling. But any rock with cavities or holes could be a host rock. Many of the cavities were partially filled with liquid when the lava was cooling, but that turned into quartz, not agate. Agate took many years of the minerals in the water leaving deposits. Many rocks have signs of being "agatized" as you mentioned, but many are not a true agate. .. Petrified wood is an example. Petrified wood is not really wood at all, but wood that was replaced with minerals from ground water over time. I have been doing some reading on this, and I agree it is very complex but there are ways to simplify it for the layman. Most articles I have read on the subject I don't like at all. . Most are full of scientific jargon, and yet don't even answer basic questions. Such as how long it took nature to make agates, when they were made, and where in the earths crust or surface they were made. (Many people think agates came from lakes and rivers or the very top surface, but most were actually formed in the ground where there was ground water.) Also why different areas of the world have different agates. (I suspect because minerals in different waters were different but I suspect there were other factors too. ). Also, are agates still being made ? I suspect yes given time, , but not as many. .
I kind of liked your video because you kept it simple and short, and left out the scientific jargon. .
You seem very knowledgeable Donald. I am rather a novice on the scientific jargon. The reason I said volcanic rock was the most common host, was because stuff I had read always said "most" agates are formed in volcanic rock, so I took that to mean some could be formed in other host rocks, but I guess I jumped to a conclusion. I once saw agates embedded in a big boulder though, that was clearly not volcanic rock. The agates were small and mostly quartz, but they still had a little banding. How could those have formed ? Regarding weathering, I didn't mean weathering could form an agate, but rather free the agate from the volcanic rock. With age and weathering the soft volcanic rock would break apart and free the agate. That's all I meant.
The Boulder with agates I saw many years ago as a young teenager about 1975. I'm almost 59 now. I can't even remember what lake it was, but it was one of the bigger lakes in central or northern Minnesota, of that I'm sure. (I live in Minnesota and always have, so it has to be). Could have been Milacs, could have been around Superior. I remember I wanted to break off a piece, and tried to pry out an agate, but the boulder was just to hard.
Yes the last glacier was only 15000 years ago right ? I guess that gave us all our lakes and distributed the agates too. I used to be able to find agates here at lake shores and stuff when I was young, but now it seems like they've all been picked through. Dirt and Gravel roads are still good for looking. The best place is farmers fields that haven't been cleared of rock. But you have to know someone. We had a friend who was a farmer and he let me check a small field that had lots of loose gravel showing. I found a beauty in just 20 minutes. Big and banded. I still have it. It made me think that all the land around here has big agates in it under the ground, but might never be found by anyone unless the ground is broken.