Ocean Jasper

Mindat names Marovato, on the coast near the village of the same name in the Analalava District, as the famous locality, where orbicular quartz is mined and then polished or carved; Kabamby, in the same commune, is also listed. According to the suppliers, the deposit was found at the edge of the sea and could first be seen and collected only at low tide; the first vein was worked from 1999 to 2006, and later veins have been found further inland.

Although sold as jasper, ocean jasper is often partly translucent; the supplier Enter the Earth notes that research describes it as spherulitic chalcedony, and some pieces show agate banding or druzy quartz. The typical round, multicoloured orbs set it apart from plain jasper. The inland "Kabamby" material tends to be green and yellow and is often confused with Kabamba (Kambaba) jasper, a different, rhyolitic stone from central Madagascar.

According to its suppliers, the material was rediscovered on the shore near Marovato in October 1999 by Paul Obeniche and introduced at the Tucson gem show in January 2000, where Obeniche and Eugene Mueller of The Gem Shop named it "Ocean Jasper" for its seaside deposit and wave-like patterns. The Gem Shop registered the trademark in 2001; Enter the Earth became its owner in 2022.