DESCRIPTION  ZEBRA ROCK POLISHED

SOURCE WESTERN AUSTRALIA

SIZE LARGETS  40X35X15MM

PARCEL 10 PIECES  AS PER IMAGE

This distinctive reddish-brown and white banded
ornamental stone from the East Kimberley, Western
Australia, has been known as zebra rock since its
discovery in 1924. Some of the original localities,
including one about 4.8km southwest of the former
Argyle Downs Station, are now submerged beneath
the dam waters of Lake Argyle, but there are others
which are still being exploited.
Zebra rock forms lenses and seams, some
extending for kilometres, within the Johnny Cake
Shale, which is of Late Precambrian age (around
670 million years old). The rock is an “argillite” or clay rock. It is largely made up of clay minerals but
also contains tiny angular fragments of quartz and mica flakes, and the mineral, hematite (an iron oxide),
which is the main iron-bearing mineral. Most of the clay is the common mineral kaolinite, which forms
during weathering of rocks (such as granite) containing feldspar and other aluminium silicates and can
be deposited as a sediment in water to eventually make a clay rock like a shale or mudstone.