Orange Red Yellow Agate Streaks
© Zen Rial/Moment/Getty Images
Winning streaks
Countless generations of geologists, pro and amateur alike, have sought the storied and striated agate. The philosopher and rockhound Theophrastus named it for the Achates, a river in Sicily where he presumably found his first fine specimen. Of course, when this pioneering prospector was combing the riverbanks around 300 BCE, these were already some seriously ancient stones. While their many dense silica layers make agates difficult to date, some earned their first stripes during the Archean Eon that ended 2.5 billion years ago. That means they're just about as old as life on Earth itself!
Daereungwon Tomb Complex, illuminated white blossom tree, sunset, Gyeongju, South Korea
Red Fox Snoozing Snow
Blue Icebergs, Pink Sunset Sky, Jökulsárlón, Iceland
Orange Red Yellow Magenta Sunset Clouds Ocean
Red Sand Dunes, Sossusvlei, Namibia
The case of the lost stones
Sunset Orange Lenticular Clouds
Beech forest sunset
