The Agate Mystery: Why We Can't Synthesize This Common Gem

If you know where to look, agates aren't particularly hard to find, and people have been examining them for thousands of years — but yet, they're one of the only major gemstones scientists can't synthesize in the lab. Here's the story.

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Key Sources about agates in the Lake Superior region, quartz, moganite, and other topics in this video:
Correspondence with Dr. Peter Heaney, May 2022
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/eurj...
https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/bo...
https://pennstateoffice365-my.sharepo...
https://www.rockngem.com/sharing-agat...

Image Links:
Lake Superior Agates:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Agates in General:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Quartz and Sub-Types:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

#agates #lakesuperior