The Exceptional Rarity of Perfectly Clear, Translucent Black Omphacite-Jadeite
- Heaven's StoneZ
- Jun 20, 2018
- 2 min read
The exceptional rarity of perfectly clear, translucent black omphacite-jadeite is beyond calculation considering the various natural factors needed for its formation.
Translucent black omphacite-jadeite formed around 300 million years ago, deep below the earth’s surface where the ancient ocean seafloor plunged into the earth’s deep mantle creating ultra high pressures in the process known as Oceanic Plate Subduction.
As a result of the ultra high pressures at these extreme depths, ocean water mixed with minor amounts of seafloor sediment and sandy debris had become highly compressed, a process that took place over 100s of millions of years, and these pieces slowly solidified over time.
Once they had solidified, these dense stones were then slowly pushed up through the layers of crust until they reached the “basement rocks” near the Earth’s surface. Once pushed into these upper basement rocks, they were then slowly eroded and carried away by the Great Uru River which once flowed extremely heavy millions of years ago.
In areas around the modern day Uru River known as the “Uru River Conglomerate”, quality Black jadeite can be found in ancient secondary deposits. This means the black jadeite was carried over millions of years down river and deposited in areas near the modern day Uru, flood plains that flood for half the year and are most of the time only accessible by divers.
The Exceptional Rarity of Perfectly Clear, Translucent Black Omphacite-Jadeite Video
Translucent Black Jadeite takes at least 3x as long to form as other colors of jadeite due to the slow assimilation process where chromium is absorbed by the jadeite’s crystalline structure.
During this long process (tens of millions of years) the Earth’s tectonic plates and mantle were in continual flux, moving and twisting which in turn, caused cracks and fissures to form in mostly all forms of jadeite.
In fine textured jadeite from river areas these cracks and defects in the stone are slowly broken off over the millions of years as they are carried down the river. This is another reason why the boulders are small and usually no bigger than the size of the palm of a hand.
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