What Does Jasper Look Like

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Jasper is a mineral that is part of the quartz family.  Like much of the quartz family, jasper is a silica mineral and has a chemical formula of SiO₂.  What helps identify jasper is much of its silica contents are polluted with other elemental contents such as iron.

It’s these additional contents that can give a nice range of colors for jasper.  Additionally, a good identifier for jasper is that it is made up of very small granules of quartz or chalcedony.  This of course does not help us very easily in visual identification.  As such, jasper can often get confused with agate or even carnelian.

My favorite place to collect jasper is where the jasper is the “host” rock and any cracks or crevices will contain agate material.  

If you want to know some of the ways to help you identify jasper, let me see if I can help you out there a little.  

Key Characteristics of What Jasper Looks Like

One of the common difficulties in identifying jasper might be that it is harder to identify if it has not been cut or polished.  When jasper has been cut, tumbled, and polished, it can make identifying it more easy.  Collecting jasper in the field can be more difficult unless you know what to look for.  You can visually identify jasper by the following looks it will have:

  • It can have distinct banding:  Some jaspers can have nice visual lines of banding.  If there is banding, it will typically all flow in a certain pattern and in one direction.
  • It can take a nice polish:  Like a lot of minerals, you can cut and polish them.  Jasper, being made of silica type material, will often polish up very nicely to show off its colors and patterns.
  • It has varied impurities:  Jasper can have a variety of patterns and looks and contain a few impurities, including visible ones.  It’s those impurities that give jasper its many different colors.
  • The colors it can have:  Its colors range in reds, purples, yellows, greens, oranges, browns, and even blues.  Inclusion of whites, blacks, and grays will also exist.  
  • Its Mohs scale hardness:  Jasper is a hard mineral with a range of 6.5 to a 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness.  This means jasper can be cut and polished without too much trouble.
Ocean Jasper: This type of jasper has a very distinct look that reminds many of ocean sea foam and sand.

Different Looking Jasper Varieties

There are plenty of varieties of jasper available.  With this, typically only the most popular and well distinguishing varieties are well known.  When it comes to identifying different varieties of jasper, its color contents will typically be key.  Some different looking jasper varieties will include:

  • Ocean Jasper:  This is a more rare form of jasper from Madagascar in which there can be light pinkish bubbles with green, white, and browns that look like a sea foam scene.  
  • Bumblebee Jasper:  This form of jasper is known for its very brilliant yellow color with occasional blackish streak inclusions.
  • Brecciated Jasper:  This jasper can look a bit broken up, pieced together, in appearance.  You will see a strong amount of one color, then suddenly there is a sharp change of seemingly different material at a different color or hue.
  • Leopard Spot Jasper:  With inclusions of roundish yellows encompassed by black, it looks very similar to leopard skin or print. This one is considered more of a type of rhyolite but receives the jasper identifier.
  • Biggs Jasper:  This is a jasper known to be in Oregon US, and has some very fine distinct banding.
  • Dalmatian Jasper:  This jasper has, as expected, splotches of black on white.  I have some with black splotches on green.  Some will dye the white part of the jasper with some other color. 

There are quite a few different varieties of jasper.  Much of which will simply get identified and labeled by the colors that may be within it.  The most confusing issue for identifying jasper in my experience is that agate can look very much like it.

Bumble Bee Jasper: This type of jasper has a very distinct yellow color about it with some black banding inclusions that give it its famous name.

   

Difference in Look Between Jasper and Agate

Jasper and agate can be quite difficult at times to tell apart. These two minerals can look so much alike that even the most experienced collectors can get confused.  Some identifying visual looking differences between Jasper and agate are:

  • Jasper has larger granules:  Though not so visible to the eye at times, agate is a finer more translucent silica material.  Almost like a hardened liquid gel.  Jasper does not have this feature, and I would say this is the most distinguishing difference between the two visually.
  • Jasper sometimes contains agate:  Jasper will sometimes have pockets or crevices within it.  This leaves room for finer agate type material to form within those cracks and crevices.  This means jasper can be the host rock.
  • Jasper banding is often more directional. When banding forms in jasper, the visible lines all appear to have similar direction, layer after layer.  Sadly, some specimens of agate can have some similar type of banding and can make it difficult to identify.  However, agate banding is often contained, from its cracks and crevices, and follows the pattern of its containment.

From my experience with jasper and agate, I often look for that main distinguishing feature of translucency in silica material.  I also like the fact that agate material is contained within crevices or cracks.  When seeing a translucent type material within some host rocks cracks and crevices, you can have a high degree of confidence that it is agate material and not jasper. 

Difference in Look Between Jasper and Amethyst

Jasper and amethyst are both part of the quartz family.  When it comes to identifying the differences between the two, it can be quite apparent.  These two minerals really don’t have much in common visually.   Some identifying visual looking differences between jasper and amethyst are:

  • Jasper is not in visible crystal form:  Jasper looks more like a rock, meaning it has no visible crystal habit, where amethyst can look like a 6 sided crystal or a glassy quartz structure.
  • Jasper has various colors:  Jasper has a nice range of colors it can be, where amethyst is light to dark purple.
  • Jasper forms as an aggregate :  Jasper is in the form of larger bits of quartz, silica material, and other inclusions.   Amethyst will form in pockets within host rock as visible crystals.

When it comes to identifying the difference between jasper and amethyst, a simple first time look may help you to never get them confused again.  The biggest identifying feature is simply amethyst is in a visible 6 sided crystal form, most of the time.  Those crystals often form in multiples on what is known as a matrix, or host rock.  Jasper does not do this.

Jasper can come in some hues of purple.  Amethyst only comes as different hues of purple, it is one of its distinguishing visual identifiers. 

Jasper vs Amethyst: To the left you see a brecciated form of red jasper. On the right is a cluster of purple amethyst crystals. With the two together, they are very different in appearance.

Conclusion

Jasper is a favorite mineral to collect for many individuals.  With that, it is also in my thoughts one of the most difficult to identify against some of the other silica type minerals such as agate.

When you get used to seeing agate type material and seeing different varieties of jasper, you start to see a bit of a distinction between the two.

Jasper is highly collectable for all its colors and ability to be cut and take a nice polish.  If you are a rock and mineral collector, jasper, in its many varieties, is definitely a great addition to any collection.

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