Pink Opal

Binthalya prospect, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Pink opal with fine layering. NHM Vienna collection (cat. no. O 183), bought in 2016 at a mineral show in Vienna.

© Alice Schumacher / NHM Vienna

Pink Opal

Binthalya prospect, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Marketed as 'pink opal' it is actually a form of mookaite. This was created from microscopic animals with an opalised skeletal structure, deposited on the floor of ancient sea beds. When the ocean retreated, the deposits were cemented under mud into rock by silica. The pink opal is found 1 kilometre south of the main mookaite deposits. The ...

Mudstone, Radiolarite

Peanut Wood deposits, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

The dark areas are a silicified petrified wood of the conifer species acaucaria, while the lighter areas is mudstone as radiolarian sediment. Cretaceous aged, 120 million years ago. Driftwood sank to the bottom of shallow ancient seas, being attacked by bivalves, which bore numerous holes into the wood. This in turn was filled by radiolarian ...

Mookaite

Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Red, gray, and yellow colored Mookaite with a conchoidal fracture

Pile of Mookaite

Mookaite deposits, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Mookaite is a colourful siltstone, mined by Glen Archer from Outback Mining. The material is well known in North America, as Glen goes to the Tucson Show each year to sell it. Material should not be taken from the leases as its stealing. However you may be in luck. Glen generously dumps a pile on the southern side of the Gascoyne River along the ...

Pink Opal

Binthalya prospect, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Pink opal with fine layering. NHM Vienna collection (cat. no. O 183), bought in 2016 at a mineral show in Vienna.

© Alice Schumacher / NHM Vienna

Pink Opal

Binthalya prospect, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Marketed as 'pink opal' it is actually a form of mookaite. This was created from microscopic animals with an opalised skeletal structure, deposited on the floor of ancient sea beds. When the ocean retreated, the deposits were cemented under mud into rock by silica. The pink opal is found 1 kilometre south of the main mookaite deposits. The ...

Mudstone, Radiolarite

Peanut Wood deposits, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

The dark areas are a silicified petrified wood of the conifer species acaucaria, while the lighter areas is mudstone as radiolarian sediment. Cretaceous aged, 120 million years ago. Driftwood sank to the bottom of shallow ancient seas, being attacked by bivalves, which bore numerous holes into the wood. This in turn was filled by radiolarian ...

Mookaite

Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Red, gray, and yellow colored Mookaite with a conchoidal fracture

Pile of Mookaite

Mookaite deposits, Mooka Creek, Mooka Station, Carnarvon Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Mookaite is a colourful siltstone, mined by Glen Archer from Outback Mining. The material is well known in North America, as Glen goes to the Tucson Show each year to sell it. Material should not be taken from the leases as its stealing. However you may be in luck. Glen generously dumps a pile on the southern side of the Gascoyne River along the ...