By Joe Dehmer
Agates are an extraordinary form of natural beauty whose genesis took place on a geological time scale, completely hidden from view. Most people are initially drawn to their combination of intense colors, prominent concentric bands, durability, and ability to take a mirror polish. However, the collector soon discovers additional layers of complexity, such as mysterious radial channels, colored dots, horizontally banded sectors, small peripheral hemispheres, tubes, circular/ orbital structures, and vastly diff erent textures within the agate. Ultimately, everyone wants to know how this all happened.
Excellent studies of agates have been carried out using advanced analytic tools (Moxon, 2009); yet, three major questions remain unresolved: