NEW LOCALITY 01

This new locality is mainly producing the most exquisitely beautiful specimens of uncracked vein agate. Vein agate like this is not common in Scotland as most of the well know areas produce nodular/amygdaloidal agates. As well as vein material we are also finding some beautiful nodular agates as well.
These are therefore very unusual! Enjoy!

NEW LOCALITY 02 – Something different?

At another new locality near Dunure on the Ayrshire coast we have been finding some rather unusual “agates”.

We think they are possible examples of agates called “Bacon agates”. This term has been created by an Italian scientist from Bologna University, Marco Campos-Venuti.
His theory suggests that there are traces of microbial activity in some agates. Marco has confirmed to me that he thinks these agates are showing evidence of bacon banding.

Generally, bacon agates are agates in veins intimately associated with hydrothermal springs, but they are also occasionally found in nodular agates and thunder eggs. In bacon banding, the bands are poorly defined, discontinuous and with variable thickness. The geometry is shaky and non-linear with frequent wrinkles and often with a tendency to form colloform-like undulations.
According to his theory Bacon banding might indicate silica precipitation directly by bacteria.

This is of course a theory that may help explain some of what we see in certain agates, but he admits that most agates are generated without biology.

His theory is therefore that Bacon bands are the product of bacteria that precipitate chalcedony directly as a consequence of their metabolism.

He also thinks that the whorled agates found on the Ross of Mull in Scotland may also show this Bacon banding.

In his fascinating new book, “BIOMINERALS, Microbial Life in Agates and other Minerals” (http://www.agatesandjaspers.com/) he goes into more detail than I can cover here. I would therefore recommend this book to anybody interested in the theory of agate formation.

At this new locality we have been finding some “strange” agates that would, even on close inspection, tend to support his theory. I will attach here a few photos of some of these specimens. 

I have also put up here some photos taken of these agate slices in ultraviolet light (Long wave UV 365nm) as it is not uncommon for Bacon banding to fluoresce, certainly much more frequently than normal agates. This fluorescence occurs when activated elements are present inside the mineral which can be impurities of metal cations such as tungsten, molybdenum, lead, boron, titanium, manganese, uranium chromium, europium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium. The same phenomenon is seen in organic matter. So, the fluorescence of the Bacon bands could be a secondary effect of their association with bacterial biofilms.

Of course the final proof of this theory would be finding, somewhere on Earth, where agates were in this formation phase and it would be possible to isolate the causative bacteria forming chalcedony in an amygdale or vein…..so far this has not been discovered, probably because nobody has looked in the right places!