What is the Difference Between Agate, Jasper, Chalcedony, and Chert?

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Want to support the channel? Toss a comment down here! What do you want to see next?

[@amberandrews6842]

That was a superlative explanation. Also I really loved every pretty rock you showed.

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video 😄.

[@amberandrews6842]

Thanks!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Awww! You didn't have to do that but thank you so much!

[@timkai]

Holy crow! James, you are SO CLOSE to 100K followers! 😆🎉🎉 Also, great video!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT! And thanks!

[@misfitGazelle]

Agates are one of my favorites, so diverse, so unique. The ultimate forbidden candy 😂 🍭 so happy to be from Michigan where we can literally just go lake Superior, look down, and pick up an agate ❤

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Ohhhhhh Lakers are fun!!!

[@Eddisdedd]

That rainbow iridescent agate I really want to eat omg so pretty

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Ya'll have so much goblin energy 😆...or maybe crow energy.

[@WarszawaScream]

@@mooneyfinemineralnah this is straight up neurodivergent energy! ……which actually kinda is the same as goblin energy. FORBIDDEN ROCK CANDY

[@C_MR_WYld307]

I'm going to have to watch this several times to truly understand, and I like that. Great video to help us rockhounds! Thanks.

[@bellablue5285]

Honestly I generally assumed 'looks like tree rings = agate', unless it's mossy agate 😅 I do quite like these educational vids, I love the sparkly shiny ones, these I get to learn something too!

[@bellablue5285]

Also that conglomerate looks like the banks of the brooks around here - all sorts of different reds and yellows and whites and clears, except they tend to be loose (once freed of the brook mud)

[@mooneyfinemineral]

And you'd USUALLY be right 😄. Glad you liked the video!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

ALSO some "plume agates" that are usually considered agate aren't banded and not agate. However Sweetwater Moss agates and the Montana Moss agates do have banding, it's just really faint and hard to see because of how old they are :D! Some of the lines can be blurry sometimes!

[@JnVrockhounding]

Great video bud. Gonna share this to my fb and a couple discord podcast channels I’m on.

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Glad you found it beneficial! And thanks for that. Hope they enjoy 😄.

[@brandymiller2298]

I just finnished working on a piece of banded amethyst. I put it into a freeform copper pendant.

[@mooneyfinemineral]

I like the banded amethysts 😄.

[@solverfix]

One of the best explanations I've come across on this subject...thanks for putting this out there! Did you say that chrysoprase is a chalcedony or a chert? Also, does obsidian fall into the SiO2 category? Thanks again!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Hello! Thanks for that! Chrysoprase is in the chalcedony category and gets it's color from nickel bearing inclusions 😄. Obsidian is also in the SiO2 category but it's a mineraloid and not a mineral since it's a glass. It doesn't have a complete/consistent internal structure.

[@solverfix]

@@mooneyfinemineral Thanks for your reply! Sorry one more question...does opal fall into this category as well?

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Hey no worries and any time. Opal is comprised of water and very tiny pieces of silica. But it doesn't have a consistent chemical structure, either as it can absorb or lose water content. So it's grandfathered in as a mineral for historical purposes but isn't a mineral by modern standards :) @@solverfix

[@mooneyfinemineral]

@@solverfix I suppose I should answer that a little better. Opal is silica and water but doesn't fall into any of these particular categories. Same with obsidian. All have silica, but it's not a chalcedony, chert, agate, or jasper :D. Hope that helps!

[@solverfix]

@@mooneyfinemineral Absolutely! Thanks for taking the time to answer! Appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I ask because I have collected several thunderegg specimens over here in Oregon and some have a mixture of chalcedony, agate, jasper with some common opal and quartz as well. Seems they flow from one to the next inside the same space. Oregon is littered with agates and jaspers and many pieces I have found seem to exhibit this tendency as well.

[@dougsmart3678]

Thanks rock doc lol this will be useful next time I'm at my gem store

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Glad I can be of assistance!

[@newshodgepodge6329]

Very informative and well explained. This cleared up some confusion for me. But I will have to watch this again later to definitively remember which label goes with which mineral.

[@mooneyfinemineral]

I know it's a little technical for some but I'm glad it made sense!

[@amberandrews6842]

More Pretty Rocks!!! WooHoo!!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

You want to see more pretty rocks! OKAY!

[@amberandrews6842]

@@mooneyfinemineral 🥰🥰🥰🥰 always!!!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

@@amberandrews6842 It will be done!!!!

[@payal_mutha]

Love this! Thank you!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

You're very welcome!

[@srely3786]

Awesome video! The colours are just gorgeous! Loved the explanation. ❤❤

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Glad to hear that!!! :D

[@garrettmillsap]

Well done!

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Thank you!

[@aureliekingsley660]

Thank you Ive been trying to understand all of these differences. To me in all the quartz, chalcedony etc. Quartz is so versatile. All depends on the environmental conditions in which silicate dioxide grows in. Amazing Nature. We are so fortunate to see the beauty of nature. Thank you.

[@mooneyfinemineral]

You are so very welcome!

[@OhioEddieBlack]

This was SO helpful - you earned a sub. Please do more like this (all X is Y, but not all Y is X because . . . .)

[@rwsandersinfo]

Do you ever do a video focused on the Ozarks?

[@mooneyfinemineral]

I haven't yet but it's something I can add to the list!

[@Gidgetwaterbear000]

I think im gonna love your channel?!❤

[@LindenRanch]

Very informative

[@EvanGrunwald-x2r]

On my trip across Canada, I found a small bead of amber, some full translucent quartz, a small piece of green jasper, a bunch of red Jasper's... A 45lbs rock hosting large veins actually it's about 70% dark grey semi transparent chalcedony, could be agate but I don't think it has banding can't wait to cut it, the stone itself it perfectly square and I had to dig it right out of the ground in amethyst country outside of thunderbay Ontario... I also might have found another nice piece of amber in the same spot as the small piece.. it's got a chubby pill shape, scuffed up but can tell it's transparent, and orange... Also recently on a island off of haunduras right on the beach i found some super polished Asian jade colored chalcedony, several hand fillers that looked like they had been polished perfectly, they don't look transparent but light will travel through, and I never seen this color ever it's super vibrant almost a yellow green.. like a mountain dew green but not as transparent

[@patchnl2699]

Ive polished some nice chert. Translucent aswell

[@JoanieBC]

Excellent explanation, even though I had to watch a couple times to absorb the info. Maybe it's the head injury, but it really did take a second watch to pick up what you were laying down. 😅

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Sorry...this one ended up being a lot more technical. Hard to distill it down any further 😅.

[@JoanieBC]

@mooneyfinemineral that's what I liked! I'll almost always choose technical and dripping in facts over quick bites of fluff (though they're delightful).

[@mooneyfinemineral]

@@JoanieBC Well I'm glad! Unfortunately I haven't found the right balance yet haha.

[@misfitGazelle]

Do you know of any good places to buy genuine iris agate? Or does your shop have any? 😁

[@mooneyfinemineral]

No, can't say I do. It's not something that is consistently mined so there isn't a large market producing it. I haven't had any for a couple of years sadly.

[@LucasAugerlavoie-Wortman]

What is the difference between chert and flint, besides colour? Also, so moss and tree agate are chalcedony? Thanks for this video!

[@MelissaR784]

That did help.

[@brandymiller2298]

Ga so much chert, fossil rocks with seashell indentions.

[@mooneyfinemineral]

And the down side to chert fossils is that they are too much hassle to prep like other fossils 😫.

[@brandymiller2298]

@@mooneyfinemineral Most of these rocks are extremly hard chert inside and will mess up your saw wet saw blades right left and center. You are not guaranteed to get the fossil out whole.

[@mooneyfinemineral]

For sure. And you can't air scribe like you can with softer materials like shale.

[@LucasAugerlavoie-Wortman]

I found some Chert; it’s a nice brown. Could I technically call that Jasper because it’s opaque and it has iron impurities?

[@aflood3446]

Jasper is so underrated

[@mooneyfinemineral]

It can be! And there are some really interesting types 😄.

[@aflood3446]

@mooneyfinemineral dalmation jasper for the win! (At least for me)

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Dalmatian jasper is really, really fun. And so aptly named!!! @@aflood3446

[@horseflower1234]

Wooo -impatient happy wiggles -

[@mooneyfinemineral]

:D!!!

[@SweetSunrising]

I need 0:56 on a T-shirt! 🦖☄️❤

[@RockyMountainBear]

That was the fourth, maybe even the fifth scientific explanation of the difference between the quartz varieties, and every explanation I received has been different. I think I just might be losing my mind.

[@TheDonParadox]

Shiny

[@mooneyfinemineral]

SHINY!!!

[@stateofdisorder1]

I think I sorta understood…..but my brain hurts now

[@mooneyfinemineral]

Sorry, that's about as far as I can distill it :(

[@mooneyfinemineral]

All are made of up of tiny SiO2 bits (quartz). They are just different types. Chalcedony is one type. Agate is a specific type of chalcedony. Chert is made up of granular quartz or chalcedony. Jasper is a colloquial name and can be either chert or chalcedony (but the opaque stuff).

[@stateofdisorder1]

@@mooneyfinemineral ok now that makes sense lol

[@WarszawaScream]

As a dinosaur, I take IMMENSE offense to your splash screen. There is not NEARLY enough chert representation. As a Rockhound - lordt thank you. I usually explain the ‘difference’ between Chert, Flint, and Jasper to friends as “ok, did the color catch your eye? It’s called Jasper. Was it dark grey or black? It’s called Flint. Was it a boring tan or grey beach rock? It’s called Chert. They are all LITERALLY the same stone but we call them different things based on their color. See this grey Chert I just broke open and it’s full of colors? Congratulations, you have witnessed the transformation from Chert to Jasper ((in this case Mookaite; although not in Australia, I find extremely similar where I live)).”

[@javiervidal366]

I'm more confused now 😅

[@fennynough6962]

Brilliant, explanation of God's amazing creations! Would definitely, [when calling a, elongated length, slow microcrystia fiberious Quartz conglomerate]; a stretch to still call it Calcedeny. It has now jumped up from a #7 MOH, to a uverwhelming #9.5 MOH! Thus a, new title of Quartzatite. Just sayin. Earliest man-made tool from Quartzatite is found to be unknappable! Any ideas? of how they put a workable blade cut surface on this Calcedeny or "Quartzatite?

[@BlazingShackles]

They're all cherts. Start there. Not sure what book you've been reading.

[@norte80110]

Bro