• A detail image of the uneven rock surface on a piece of rough leopardskin jasper. It is spotted with yellow, green-gray, and gray-black orbicular patterns, and criss-crossed yellow veins across the surface.
  • Full view of the front of the piece, a piece of light-colored rock roughly shaped like a chicken breast. The veining pattern has straight lines with secondary straight line branching of of them at the same angle, like a feather. The veining has a gradient from golden yellow on one side to an orange color on the other.
  • Another side of the rock, with orbicular pattern and diagonally crossed with veining in a color gradient from yellow at the top to red at the bottom.
  • The back side of the piece, with a different veining pattern of parallel lines and angled ones forming triangles.
  • A fourth side of the piece, again with diagonal veining in a gradient from yellow to red.
  • Detail view of the main feather-like pattern of veining, showing parts of it appear to be lines composed of orbicular spots.
  • Captioned "wet," detail of the piece wet showing more vibrant coloration to the same feather-like pattern. The concentric radial pattern is more visible.
  • Captioned "wet," a full view of the front of the piece wet. The orbicular pattern is good but doesn't have the cleanest formation. Many are off-round and only have two colors.
  • Captioned "wet," the side of the piece with parallel-line patterning wet. The coloration of the veining is more vibrant golden yellow
  • Captioned "wet," the side with yellow-to-red gradient veining pattern, with much more vibrant coloration. The background rock also takes on red, orange, and yellow tints.
  • Captioned "wet," detail of the orbicular pattern and veining composed of spherulites. The radial pattern is apparent in both orbicular pattern and veins; a line runs up the center of veins with pattern radiating out.
  • Scale image of the piece of leopardskin on a measuring mat, showing it is nearly six by three inches long
1 12

Yellow leopardskin jasper

Yellow leopardskin jasper

$12.00 USD
$12.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Locale: Mexico

Approx dimensions: 5.5 x 2.5 x 2.5"

Approx weight: 425g

 

Leopardskin jasper is in fact not a true jasper, but a variety of rhyolite. A lot of jaspers are actually rhyolite! Mineralogically jasper is a variety of chalcedony, which is a form of quartz. Rhyolite is in the family tree, an igneous rock composed of quartz and feldspar. 

Leopardskin provides a textbook example of orbicular growth: round 'orb-' or eyeball-like patterns in minerals, often showing multiple rings of color. Alternatively these are called orbicular spherulites; spherulites are minerals composed of dense radial needle-like growth from a point to create a sphere (hence "spher"ulite). Spherulites are typically crystalized feldspar forming within volcanic igneous quartz-based rock. They commonly appear as distinct circles with rings of color as in the case of leopardskin jasper.

Leopardskin can also have veining or bold colorful banding like the golden yellow stripes in a feather-like shape across this piece. Studied closely, the veins are composed of spherulites and have good radial growth.

Add the rough piece to your collection, drier terrariums, or use as an accent in a succulent bowl. Chunks of rough like this are commonly sold for lapidary purposes, to be polished into tumbles, slabs, carvings, or jewelry. The rough material is already quite beautiful, but colors deepen if polished; images labeled 'wet' preview what to expect if you do wish to polish.

View full details