"meteorite" / jaguar agates from WY

jrh4

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Jun 26, 2018
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Hey y'all, I was wondering if anyone has ever seen anything like these "meteorite" agates before. I have my own theories as to how they could be formed like that, but I'm curious what other people think. They certainly are unique! What do you think they are and what kind of processes made them look so amazing?

(Edited by mod for rule violation)

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Treasure_Hunter

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JRH4, welcome to TreasureNet.

Sorry, only charter members and supporting vendors can post links to their EBay sales.
 

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old digger

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Your item is not a meteorite, and I am not aware of ''Jaguar agate". Your item looks like a low grade agate that has that white and milky colored agate coloring.
 

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Al D

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Not even close to a meteorite, you should research a little about what a meteorite is and how they differ from terrestrial rocks.
 

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smokeythecat

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As stated correctly, this has nothing to do with a meteorite. It is agate, and a more common sort, little banding and it has only a few colors to it. That said, there may be more colorful stuff nearby.
 

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jrh4

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Jun 26, 2018
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I wish you could have seen the ebay links because there are more pics and much more info in these agates. No one here actually addressed my questions or offered up any valuable insights as to their origins. BTW no one is claiming that these are meteorites, they only say they're called that because of the way they look. And I've been collecting for a while, there's very little that is "ordinary" about these.
 

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fuss

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Is this photo taken in UV light? I cant really make out agate at all.. maybe a shot in daylight would be better. It kinda reminds me of some of the coral chert fossil's found near me in lake Michigan.
 

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smokeythecat

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I looked at Ebay. These are common agates. The base materials is silicon dioxide - quartz. The most common element on earth. It is deposited by hydrothermal solution. The solution that cools quickly becomes massive, like, agate, jasper and massive quartz as in boulders, etc. The SiO2, silicon dioxide that cools slower in cavities becomes quartz crytals.

The black inclusions are generally traces of manganese.

Nice try on Ebay.
 

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fuss

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I now saw the listing, and my thought is chalcedony with some kind of inclusions probably manganese like smokey said, not unlike Montana agate IMO.
 

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DDancer

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Looks more like a smoothed out piece of mammilary chalcedony to me with some crystallization in the pockets. The backlighting gives it and agate like effect but mammilary chalcedony does the same thing with the translucent gaps between the billows.
 

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jrh4

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Jun 26, 2018
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thank you to everyone who has posted. i suppose i'm mostly curious about how they are formed that way if they aren't tumbled. someone told me in another form they might be "ventifact" which means wind-blown? but how the heck...they look water worn, wind worn, tumbled, and all sorts of cool combinations. can anyone show me an example of something similar? anyone? anywhere in the world?
 

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DDancer

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without better pictures in natural light, and maybe a few more samples its hard to tell what kind of polish it has. The picture posted is not clear enough and the back lighting does not help as it obscures the polish.
 

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smokeythecat

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Probably stream tumbled at some point. Once upon a time ago the west was a lot wetter than it is now.
 

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fuss

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Chalcedony has a very smooth texture to begin with and add in a bit of stream tumbling and it could very easily appear as these do.
 

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jrh4

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Jun 26, 2018
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there are a lot of pics posted on the ebay listings...in the light, under a UV, and under a "mirrored LED light".
thanks again for your replies, although someone has yet to show me an example of something similar. people keep basically telling me how unamazing these things are, but i just haven't seen anything like them anywhere
 

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Kray Gelder

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there are a lot of pics posted on the ebay listings...in the light, under a UV, and under a "mirrored LED light".
thanks again for your replies, although someone has yet to show me an example of something similar. people keep basically telling me how unamazing these things are, but i just haven't seen anything like them anywhere

Every region has it's local, unusual agate material. Ellensburg Blues, Herkimer Diamonds ( quartz ), Apache Tears, Lake Superior Agates, Thunder Eggs, Etc., etc. Your example is no different. We who live in the areas where these rocks are found, attach special value to them, when in reality, they are just another agate, lovely as they may be. Enjoy it.
 

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