Mookaite Properties, Meaning, Facts and Photos
What is Mookaite?
Mookaite is a variety of jasper, a microcrystalline quartz-based rock formed from the fossilised remains of tiny aquatic organisms called radiolaria.
Found in just one location in Western Australia, mookaite can be incredibly colourful and is mainly used for decorative purposes and its metaphysical healing properties.
Mookaite is composed primarily of the microscopic remains of minute aquatic organisms called radiolaria. Radiolaria, a type of plankton, are single-celled organisms that float in marine environments.
Radiolaria, part of the zooplankton group, have silica-based skeletal structures, often intricate and spiny. They drift with ocean currents, and their remains eventually contribute to rock formations like Windalia Radiolarite, the scientific term for the formation where mookaite is found.
Mookaite is a rock, not a mineral, because, like most varieties of jasper, it's composed of different minerals and substances.
Mookaite typically contains silica, clay minerals, and various types and concentrations of iron oxides. Mookaite's distinctive colours, which can include shades of red, yellow, brown, cream and purple, come primarily from impurities of iron and manganese.
Along with precious opal, mookaite is one of Australia's best-known gemstones.
On the Mohs scale of hardness, mookaite grades 6 to 7. Although relatively hard, it's also brittle, so can break or fracture easily.
The Name 'Mookaite'
The name 'mookaite' comes from where this type of jasper is found. Although Mookaite is a trade name, it has never been officially registered.
It's common for the suffix 'ite' to be used when naming rocks and minerals. Trade names usually include the location where a material is found, the person who discovered it, or another identifying characteristic. Labradorite, sugilite, charoite and shungite are a few examples.
Many online articles claim that the name 'Mookaite' comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'running waters.' However, this translation is not consistently supported by linguistic research or primary sources, and no widely recognised Aboriginal language dictionary explicitly links the two.
Aboriginal languages are highly diverse, with hundreds of distinct groups across Australia. The specific language group associated with the Mooka Creek area is not always clearly identified in discussions about Mookaite.
The mookaite deposit is on private land at Mooka Creek, within Mooka Station, on the western side of the remote Kennedy Range National Park. This variety of jasper has not been found anywhere else in the world.
Although often pronounced 'mookite', the correct pronunciation is 'mooka~ite' because the stone was named after Mooka Creek.
Article Pictures
The mookaite in the picture at the top of our page is courtesy of James St.John. The tumbled stones are from our collection.
Both pictures are clickable. The first photo redirects to an entire album of mookaite.
Pop-up photo: Opal - Courtesy of Stan Celestian.
