Ocean Jasper Properties, Facts and Photos

What is Ocean Jasper?

Ocean Jasper is a silicified rhyolite known for its unique patterns and vibrant colours.

Rhyolite is an igneous rock that forms when lava with a high silica content cools and solidifies. However, Ocean Jasper undergoes a transformation through silicification, where silica-rich fluids gradually replace the original minerals in the rock.

Here's What Happens:

The original rock is orbicular rhyolite, formed from volcanic activity.

Over time, silica-rich fluids seep into the rock, replacing its original minerals in a process called silicification.

This transformation turns the rhyolite into microcrystalline quartz (chalcedony), creating distinctive patterns and translucency.

Because of this transformation, Ocean Jasper is considered both a silicified rhyolite and a variety of chalcedony. The classification depends on whether you focus on its geological origins (rhyolite) or its final mineral composition (chalcedony).

Ocean Jasper is often described as an orbicular jasper because of its orb-like patterns. These circular formations vary in size, colour and arrangement, creating the stone's striking and unique appearance.

The orbs form from radial growths of quartz or feldspar crystals, which develop into spherical structures over time.

Orbicular Jaspers are found in many countries around the world. Ocean Jasper, correctly known as Kabamby Ocean Jasper, can only be found on the northwest coast of Madagascar.

The stone's colours come from various mineral inclusions. Red is from iron in the form of hematite, yellow or grey is clay and shades of brown are mostly goethite.  

Ocean Jasper is a registered trade name.

Kabamby Ocean Jasper

The deposit where Kabamby Ocean Jasper was first documented to have been found in the 1950s was incorrectly recorded as Kabamba. Kabamba is an area in central Madagascar. It should have been documented as Kabamby, which is a remote location on the northwest coast.

Ocean Jasper was then forgotten and remained hidden until it was rediscovered some fifty years later.

There is some evidence to suggest that Ocean Jasper from Kabamby was discovered earlier than the 1950s.

On a receipt dated 1927 associated with a stone owned by German mining engineer and mineral collector Richard Baldauf [1848 -1931], Ocean Jasper was referred to as "augenjaspis" meaning 'eye jasper'.

Renewed interest in finding the deposit followed the publication in 1977 of a photo of a particularly striking stone. It was published in a French encyclopaedia of minerals.

Twenty-two years later, in 1999, the area where Ocean Jasper was originally found was rediscovered. Due to the remote location, it wasn't accessible by road, so only became visible during low tide.

With the only access being by sea, large mechanical digging equipment could not be transported to the site. Therefore, the stone was extracted by hand before being taken by boat to the nearest large town.

Ocean Jasper was first introduced to the world at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in 2001.

Seven deposits have been found so far, but most, if not all, are now mined out. The original deposit in Kabamby was exhausted by 2006.

Despite having a very different appearance, Kabamby Ocean Jasper is often confused for Kambaba Jasper. Kambaba Jasper is also known locally as Kabamba, after the area in the Bongolava region of Madagascar where it's found.

The distance between the two locations is considerable. 

With so many articles online being repeatedly copied and reproduced, mostly inaccurately, facts about these two materials have become entwined.

Article Pictures

The close-up images of Ocean Jasper are courtesy of Captain Tenneal. They're clickable and redirect to the original image. 

The Ocean Jasper in our last photo was once part of our collection.

Pop-up photos: Kambaba Jasper - Courtesy of Marco Campos-Venuti. Rhyolite - Courtesy of James St. John. Hematite (quartz included with hematite) - Courtesy of Stan Celestian.