Ocean Jasper Sphere - Rainforest World

  This particular piece looks like a lush, tropical rainforest world, with rocky brown mountain tops and sparse but vast deep oceans.      Note: the display screen may not accurately depict colour - this is a blue-grey colour, with less green.    Geology: Ocean Jasper is a rare form of jasper, which is a form of chalcedony. It is also known as 'orbicular jasper' due to the banded ring shape / concentric bands of colour, from "spheroidal igneous inclusions", which just means the weathering/erosion of the rock peels off in layers, like an onion.    This is quite a rare form of Jasper - hence the price. Found only in the Kabamby region of Northwest Madagascar - this stone was only collected by hand in remote tides and carried back the local village for processing. The prime location - the Mine of Marovato - was fully exhausted in 2006. Though smaller, less attractive deposits surface from time to time - the main bulk of what is available for purchase is just recirculating specimens mined