Mexican Bird's Eye Rhyolite

Mexican Bird's Eye rhyolite is a gem stone that I recently "discovered", and it has quickly become one of my favorites. There wasn't much of it on the market until recently. In Mexico it is called "fossil stone". It's not a fossil, but the result of volcanic activity, an igneous rock. Rhyolite lava is very thick and is spewed out of a volcano when gasses build up. It cools quickly, before crystals are formed. It is very high in silica and is chemically identical to granite.

 

The patterns of Mexican Bird's Eye rhyolite are beautiful and quite fascinating. They are formed from spheres of radiating minerals. The colors range from burgundy, chocolate brown, shades of orange to pale pinks and creams. Many specimens contain natural fissures that are filled in with iron inclusions, making for very interesting patterns.

 

Sometimes there are different hardnesses within a single stone. The overall hardness is 7 on the Mohs scale, with 10 being the hardest. Rhyolite is associated with change, variety and progress and helps people move forward in their lives.