4.4" Polished Banded Agate Nodule Section - Agouim, Morocco

This site in Agouim, Morocco produces a wide variety of agate and jasper formation, with "jasper agates", "banded floater agates" surrounded in quartz and ribbon agates being some of the highly sought after specimens. In addition, there are a diverse selection of other agates that are often confused visually with those from other sites like Aouli and Kerrouchen.

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 rock and/or fossils, resulting in deposition of the silica along the walls of the rock. This process can result in banding patterns as the composition and impurities of the fluids change over time. These banding patterns can either form as flat layers or rounded layers, depending on the surfaces available for deposition.