Agate Close Ups

Well I'm not sure if the weather yesterday was technically called a blizzard -- but it sure looked like and felt like one.  We only received an inch or two of snow, but the strong winds whipped it up and piled it up at least on the south side of my house.  It is still cold today, but thankfully the wind has died down.

For today's blog posting I pulled out my USB microscope camera.  When sorting rocks, I came across a bag of Mexican agates that was donated to the museum while I was in New Mexico a few years back. 

All of these agates were cut and tumble polished.  The polished cut side....

The back side of the same agate showing botryoidal formations.

The agate below has a macro quartz center fill.   I noticed that many of the agates had internal fractures, such as is shown in the bottom right.  I'm wondering if it is because these agates formed in a tectonically active region.

The back side of the same agate...

Nice bands...

The agate below shows iron oxide deposits between and within bands.

The inflow channels below are amazing.