2.7" Polished Botswana Agate Nodule - Botswana

This is a beautiful 2.7" wide banded agate nodule that has been polished to a mirror finish on one side. These agate nodules are collected from the Bobonong District of Botswana, Africa. These agates feature gorgeous parallel banding in a variety of color hues including white, blue, grey, purple, pink and red. This specimen exhibits the wegeler effect and has an intriguing flowery pattern around the edges of the banding.

The Wegeler effect, also known as the shadow effect or parallax effect, is a three-dimensional oddity in which rotating a banded agate creates the illusion that those banding lines move. One line will move with the source of light while the other moves with your point of view. This occurs in agate that has tightly packed, alternating bright opaque bands and transparent bands.

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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DETAILS
SPECIES
Chalcedony var. Agate
LOCATION
Bobonong District, Central District, Botswana, Africa
SIZE
2.7" wide nodule
CATEGORY
ITEM
#206711