OPAL PINEAPPLES

Opal Pineapples:

Opal Pineapples (Ikaite-Calcite-Opal) are one of the rarest mineral specimens on earth, with only a small number being unearthed whole and intact. 

Opal Pineapples formed around 120 millions years ago under frozen conditions. Beginning as a hydrous mineral called Ikaite, as temperatures rise to around 4 degrees Celsius, the water is released leaving a Calcified webbing. Elsewhere it is re-calcified to form what’s know as a Glendonite, however in White Cliffs it is then later again replaced during the opal forming event (40mya), to become known today as the Opal Pineapple. 

This process means that Opal Pineapples are in fact the fossil of a mineral and known as a double pseudomorph.