• A large conical geode held in the hand like an ice cream cone, in indirect light. The crust of it is a thin rough brown rock, with a darker brown dirt-like covering on the bottom half hiding a repair.
  • Looking straight into the bottom of the conical geode, several sphere-like forms in white and orange visible.
  • Looking into the geode, with the broad side covered with wide bumps instead of the usual spires. The piece is light colored, with an orange layer covered in milky white chalcedony and glittering small quartz crystals.
  • Looking down into the geode at an angle, highlighting the surface pattern of bands of larger quartz crystals crossing one side and large botryoidal forms on the other. A cluster of dark brown mineral is visible at the rim.
  • The bottom tip of the geode, the brown rock surface chipped off revealing a white core and ring of orange chalcedony.
  • A side-view of the piece showing the area covered with dark brown material is the bottom half of the piece, hiding repair work.
  • The specimen in full sun, showing milky white quartz crystals across the surface like druzy.
  • Looking down into the geode, with spherical orange and white forms near the tip
  • Detail of the cluster of minerals near the rim, calcite crystals partially covered with a dark brown mineral with metallic luster.
  • Detail of the milky white quartz growth, with orange faintly visible through. The crystals are shaped like parallel rice grains.
  • Looking down into the center of the geode, with a circle and arrow indicating a white patch near the tip with the caption "visible white glue from repair"
  • Scale image of the specimen on a measuring mat, measuring about five and a half inches tall and tapered from about an inch at the base up to four inches at the widest.
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Stalactitic chalcedony geode (repaired) "The Waffle Cone"

Stalactitic chalcedony geode (repaired) "The Waffle Cone"

$50.00 USD
$60.00 USD $50.00 USD
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Locale: Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Approx dimensions: 5.5 x 3.5 x 3"

Approx weight: 458g

**Repaired specimen

 

These unusual geodes from Morocco are like small caves lined with stalactites, botryoidal forms, and swirling agate patterns. While commonly called red chalcedony, I find the color is more orange to red-orange. Hematite causes this coloration, but later phases of growth (“second generation”) don’t contain hematite inclusions. This creates a colorless-to-white growth over the orange chalcedony, which can produce a soft orange-cream druzy coating, or bold Halloween patterns of orange and white stripey stalactites.

I would love to know more about how these formed. I have observed many are “ice cream cone” shaped—technically speaking, “conical.” This one fits perfectly in the hand like a cone so it earned the moniker! It has orange chalcedony coated with a relatively thick layer of frosty translucent quartz. The quartz has formed in small rice-shaped crystals growing parallel to one another across the surface. Since chalcedony and quartz are closely related you often see them grow together. They have the same chemical composition (silica) but different crystal structure (cryptocrystalline vs. crystalline).

The growth changes near the tip and the orange chalcedony shows through better. The rounded white crystal near it is radial-growth quartz. There is additionally a cluster of calcite crystals at the entrance of the geode. They have a brown overgrowth on them that almost appears bronze (unknown; I have not been able to find info on common associates of this material).

This specimen has been inexpertly repaired from several pieces. Not all pieces were reset evenly so cracks may be offset. White glue is visible on the inside of the geode near the tip.

UV reactivity Under 365 nm UV light, the white quartz layer fluoresces white and the calcite has a strong orange-red reaction with phosphorescence.

** Brittle warning! This material has the tendency to be crumbly, shedding pieces when handled. Limit handling and do not place stress on repair joints.

 

Repaired: This specimen has been repaired, meaning it broke but someone recompiled and glued it back together. These Moroccan geodes are frequently recompiled and glued together—but this is infrequently disclosed :( Read more about how to detect repairs.

I don't know how often breaks occur due to rough techniques in mining or cracking the geodes open, but I suspect many of the breaks are natural based on how few intact pieces I have ever seen. I have observed many of these geodes have a fairly thin, brittle crust which may make them susceptible to fracturing as part of normal geological processes. I have also seen examples where it appeared iron staining had leaked through the breaks, indicating the cracks occurred well before the specimen was mined.

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