Apache tears

Geology

Apache tears originate from siliceous lava flows, lava domes or ash-flow tuffs, often in close association with or embedded in, gray perlite. The spherules occur as cores within perlite masses that typically exhibit texture of concentrically curved, onion-skin fractures. Formation is apparently related to differential cooling and various alkali and water contents. Excessive water present during cooling and quenching of rhyolitic lava causes obsidian to hydrate (i.e., water entering the obsidian glass converts it to perlite). Where perlite is incompletely hydrated, fresh obsidian cores remain as pebbles of marekanite, or Apache tears; this origin has been occasionally described in the geologic literature.

Apache tears are well known from tertiary volcanic terrain in numerous localities throughout the western United States, particularly Arizona, from where specimens were widely collected and sold in the lapidary and specimen trade. Several districts in western Nevada also have yielded abundant Apache tears eroding from tuff beds; such areas have been popularized in the lapidary trade through guides for rockhounds. Specimens from many of these sites have been avidly collected by rockhounds and lapidary enthusiasts, are often tumbled and may be considered semi-precious gemstones; locations are noted in the section "Gemstones of Nevada" by Rose and Ferdock.