Mooralla Geodes
Item # G1107S4000
Rare Mooralla Geode from Australia
This specimen weighs 2.5oz (71g) and measures 2.1 x 1.6 x 1.35 inches (54 x 41 x 34mm)
Mooralla has long been a famous collecting area, mainly in lapidary circles, and is renowned for its spectacular specimens of smoky quartz. Lesser known is the occurrence of other forms of quartz, including epimorphs, and a small number of other minerals. The popular smoky quartz collecting area of Mooralla, also known variously as Black Range or Anderson’s Creek, is located west of the Grampians in western Victoria near the Rocklands Reservoir. The township of Mooralla consisting mainly of a few buildings, is a few kilometres to the southeast.
The treasured smoky quartz "geodes" that have been highly sought since the 1960s, occur in a decomposing rhyolite, and are sometimes described as miarolitic cavities. Where once good specimens could be extracted from near the surface, holes are now dug down to depths approaching 6 metres in the main part of the field. For those that like smaller specimens, loose crystals, or the other minerals that are occasionally found, shallow holes to about 2 metres deep at the perimeters of the field will fulfill their needs.
Quartz is the dominant mineral found at Mooralla. The most popular, sought after, and aesthetic form, is the so- called Mooralla Crystal (smoky quartz), which which may be found as simple or complex , which may be found as simple or complex crystals, or groups of crystals to many centimetres in length, and rarely as crystals, or groups of crystals to many centimetres in length, and rarely as sceptres. Many of these crystals are not simply a dark form of quartz, but exhibit wisp-like curls of smoke that swirl through the crystal. Gas bubbles in liquid inclusions are not uncommon but are difficult to find until you have "got your eye in".
Recent editions of both the Mineralogical Record and the UK Journal of Mines and Mineralogy have featured photographs of Mooralla Crystals (although both have mis-spelled the locality as "Moorella"), and the special publication from the Mineralogical Society of Victoria, Gemstones of Victoria, features a small section on Mooralla.