A beautiful piece of Australian Mookaite carved into a 40mm x 32mm x 10mm heart and wire wrapped with Argentium 935 silver. The pendant has a drop of 4 cm and comes with a cord.
AUD $139.00 + shipping
The name "mookaite" is a locational name, the rock was first noted as found at Mooka Station near Mooka Creek in the Kennedy Ranges in the Carnarvon Basin of Western Australia, around 1000km north of Perth. Local legend says the word “mooka” is from the indigenous people & means “running waters”. Possibly a reference to the many fresh water springs that feed Mooka Creek. Mookaite is actually a fossiliferous sedimentary rock. The correct geological term for the formation that mookaite occurs in is: Windalia Radiolarite. Subsequently, the radiolarite with less silica has decomposed into beds of soft white clay which now surround the stunning nodules. Microscopic examination shows Mookaite consists of the remains of tiny creatures known as radiolaria, that have an unusual skeletal structure of opaline silica. Billions of these were deposited as sediment in the ancient sea-beds of shallow seas. When the seas retreated, these sediments were cemented into solid rock by the silica.