Entry № 177
Desert Jasper
Polychrome Jasper
Madagascan silica painted in sunset weather.
Chakra
Root · Sacral · Solar Plexus
Element
Earth · Fire
Zodiac
Leo · Sagittarius

I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Desert jasper (polychrome jasper) is worked with as a stone of embodied vitality, kept nearby during creative projects, dance and any practice that asks a person to stop apologising for being alive. Practitioners hold it as a reminder that landscape colours belong in a person too.
- Chakra
- Root · Sacral · Solar Plexus
- Element
- Earth · Fire
- Zodiac
- Leo · Sagittarius
- Keynote
- Madagascan silica painted in sunset weather.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Desert jasper — sold under the trade name polychrome jasper — is a microcrystalline quartz first commercially discovered in Madagascar in 2010, in which the warm ochre, red, cream and mauve figuring comes from iron and manganese oxides distributed through the silica matrix. Its patterning reflects rhythmic precipitation of these oxides during silicification of the host sediment.
- Formula
- SiO₂ (with Fe / Mn oxide pigments)
- System
- Trigonal (microcrystalline)
- Hardness
- 6.5 – 7 (Mohs)
- Provenance
- Madagascar (western Mahajanga region)
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- SiO₂ (with Fe / Mn oxide pigments)
- Crystal System
- Trigonal (microcrystalline)
- Mohs Hardness
- 6.5 – 7 (Mohs)
- Density
- 2.58 – 2.91 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.530 – 1.540
- Provenance
- Madagascar (western Mahajanga region)
- Color Origin
- Warm ochre, red, cream and mauve bands with swirling matrix figuring
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Dianite Blue Jade
A Siberian pyroxene that only borrows jade's name.




