Moss agate (also called mocha stone) is a semi-precious gemstone formed from silicon dioxide. It is a form of agate which includes minerals of a green colour embedded in the chalcedony, forming filaments and other patterns suggestive of moss. It also sometimes resembles blue-cheese. The field is a clear or milky-white quartz, and the included minerals are mainly oxides of manganese or iron. Moss agate is of the white variety with green inclusions that resemble moss. It occurs in many locations. The colors are formed due to trace amounts of metal present as an impurity, such as chrome or iron. The metals can make different colors depending on their valence.
Despite its name, moss agate does not contain organic matter and is usually formed from weathered volcanic rocks.
Montana moss agate is an agate found in the alluvial gravels of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries between Sidney and Billings, Montana. The agate originally was formed in the Yellowstone National Park area of Wyoming as a result of volcanic activity. In Montana moss agate the red color is the result of iron oxide and the black color is the result of manganese oxide.
-
Gothic-Style Bracelet; gold, carnerlian, malachite, moss agate, amethysts, aquamarines, rubies. The Walters Art Museum.
Famous quotes containing the words moss and/or agate:
“His life itself passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for the naturalist. The latter raises the moss and bark gently with his knife in search of insects; the former lays open logs to their core with his axe, and moss and bark fly far and wide. He gets his living by barking trees. Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Shaw’s plays are the price we pay for Shaw’s prefaces.”
—James Agate (1877–1947)