What is Mookaite?
Mookaite is popular because its red, mustard, cream and purple patterns look like a natural palette. Its strongest story is provenance: the material connects a distinctive lapidary surface with the sedimentary landscape of Western Australia.
Mineralogy and crystal structure
Reference formula: SiO2. Mookaite is a lapidary name for colourful jasper or chert, commonly made of microcrystalline silica with iron-rich and clay-rich components. It is a rock or lapidary material, not a single mineral species with one crystal lattice, so no artificial structure is assigned. Mookaite is classified with a material or rock rather than one mineral class and has a not applicable because the entry has no single crystal lattice crystal system. Typical hardness is 6–7 on the Mohs scale and specific gravity is approximately 2.5–2.7.
Colour, lustre and habit
Typical colours include red, yellow, cream, purple, brown. The usual massive, microcrystalline, brecciated habit and waxy, dull, vitreous lustre help describe a specimen, but colour alone is not diagnostic.
Formation and notable localities
Mookaite forms in or is associated with siliceous sediment and radiolarian or cherty material in the Mooka Creek area of Western Australia. Important documented localities include Western Australia, especially the Kennedy Ranges and Mooka Creek area.
Australian colour in a polished silica material
Mookaite is popular because its red, mustard, cream and purple patterns look like a natural palette. Its strongest story is provenance: the material connects a distinctive lapidary surface with the sedimentary landscape of Western Australia.
Collecting and care
Protect polished surfaces from scratches and acids; avoid describing every red or yellow jasper as mookaite without provenance.
