Mineral variety Healing crystal

Matrix Opal

✦ Stone of Integration ✦

Crystal lore: 🌳 Grounding 🎨 Creativity 🌿 Healing

Variety of Opal.

Matrix Opal specimen — Opal banded.jpg · Wikimedia Commons (see file page for author & license) · photo of parent mineral

📜 Key facts

Age	Cretaceous host rocks
Origin & sources	Andamooka (South Australia) and Queensland.
Composition	Precious opal spread through the pores of its host rock. Andamooka matrix is often treated with sugar and acid to darken it. Opal is hydrated amorphous silica (SiO₂·nH₂O), Mohs 5.5–6.5.

How it forms

Silica-rich water seeped into cracks, cavities and fossils, then slowly evaporated. Tiny silica spheres settled out. In precious opal they are stacked in a neat, regular grid that diffracts light into play-of-colour. In common opal they are jumbled.

Mineral data: see Opal.

🌍 Where it's found

Type locality
Notable source / deposit
Country of origin

Marker positions are approximate (region or locality level). Type localities from Wikidata; notable sources curated by Crystopedia.

✨ Metaphysical & Folklore

These are traditional and folk beliefs from crystal lore. They are not scientific or medical claims – crystals are not a substitute for professional care.

Opal sparkling through its host rock is linked in lore to integration and grounded creativity.