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From Various ranches and road cuts south of Marfa, Presido Co., Texas |
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The Marfa agates have
been found at several ranches and along the
roadcuts south of Marfa, Texas for several decades
and they still can be found today due to erosion.
Those agates tend to
be colorless to white "Waterline" types, and they
appear to have been weathered
out of the basalt beds atop the white ash layers.
Since grassy Big Bend
of Texas is prime for cattling, much of the land
beyond the fences are
private cattle ranches where better agates can be
found. But anyone are
strongly discouraged to cross the fences into the
private lands due to
the safety concerns for the cattle (expensive to
manage!) and there are
some armed ranchers willing to use you as "target
practices".
Even the agates from Marfa were known for several decades, the agates with strong blue to black colors have recently emerged from the private lands, and I can't recall any other agates outside the Big Bend of Texas coming with such strong color combination of black, white and blue. I was able to obtain some by trading with a local Marfa jeweler who had a special permission to collect on the private ranches in exchange for producing lapidary jewelry out of them for the ranch owners. What makes those agates even more special is that some agates contain what may be most colorful plume structures in any agates around the world. The plumes in the agates are typically black, but the pink, red, orange, yellow, green and even blue plumes have been found. Some plume agates can contain the combo of different colors, earning their nickname: "Marfa Banquet" Agate. |
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