4.8" Polished Cherry Creek Jasper - China

Cherry creek jasper also known as Red Creek Jasper or Picasso Jasper is a beautiful, veiny stone mined from the Cherry Creek Mine in China. There are a wide variety of colors and brecciated patterns in the stone. Though it's typically referred to as a jasper, it's not a jasper in a true sense as it's primary component is dolomite, not chalcedony. Like most dolomitic rocks and jaspers it would have formed from sediment laid down by an ancient ocean.

Jasper is a term that can be applied to an opaque variety of chalcedony (light does not pass through it). The opaqueness is due to a higher concentration of impurities mixed with silica/quartz. Like agate it may form in a wide variety of colors, and is often multi-colored. In most cases, jasper will occur when silica-rich fluids permeate throughout a soft sediment or volcanic debris deposit. The fluids then crystallize around the particles/impurities, resulting in a cementation process. Most often, the impurities present determine the coloration of the deposit following solidification, however other factors can play a role in the color of what is now considered a jasper.