Digital TownsCrystalsShop crystals
  1. Crystals & Minerals
  2. Jasper

What Is Jasper? Red Jasper, Ocean Jasper and the Many Kinds of Jasper

By Digital Towns Crystals ยท Last reviewed October 7, 2026

Short answer: jasper is an opaque form of silica, made mostly of very fine-grained quartz or chalcedony colored by other minerals. Red jasper, the most common kind, owes its color to iron. Jasper comes in almost every color and pattern, and many varieties carry local or fanciful trade names, from ocean jasper to polychrome jasper. Some stones sold as "jasper" are not jasper at all. It rates 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, polishes well, and in crystal traditions is a grounding stone.

What is jasper?

Jasper is an opaque rock made mainly of very fine-grained quartz or chalcedony, silicon dioxide, with other minerals mixed in. Those extra minerals give jasper its colors and patterns. It is hard, 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, with a specific gravity of 2.5 to 2.9, and it breaks with a smooth surface and takes a high polish.

Jasper forms from silica-rich sediments or volcanic ash. Patterns arise as the material consolidates, preserving flow and layering, and hydrothermal circulation is generally thought to be needed for jasper to form. Later fracturing, refilling with other minerals and the spread of minerals along cracks add more patterns, including fern-like dendrites.

Why is red jasper red?

The common reddish color of jasper comes from iron. Red jasper is the classic form: an opaque brick red to deep red stone, sometimes with darker or lighter patches. Jasper is also found yellow, brown and green, and very rarely blue.

Jasper vs carnelian and agate

All three are fine-grained quartz, but they look different:

  • Jasper is opaque, with light not passing through.
  • Carnelian is translucent orange to red chalcedony, glowing when held up to light.
  • Agate is translucent banded chalcedony.

The ancient word for jasper, iaspis, covered stones of considerable translucency too, including green stones that would now be called chalcedony or even nephrite. Today the name is limited to opaque material.

What are the types of jasper?

Naming jasper is a challenge, even for geologists. Some names come from where a jasper is found, down to a single canyon or lake, some are fanciful, such as "forest fire" or "rainbow", and others are descriptive, such as "autumn" or "porcelain".

  • Red jasper: the classic brick to deep red jasper colored by iron.
  • Picture jasper: jasper with banding, dendrites and color changes that look like landscapes or scenes on a cut face. Biggs jasper from Oregon and Bruneau jasper from Idaho are well-known American examples.
  • Orbicular jasper: jasper with rounded orbs, formed where needle-like crystals grew in radiating clusters in silica-rich rhyolite or tuff.
  • Ocean jasper: the trade name for an orbicular jasper found along the intertidal shores of northeast Madagascar.
  • Poppy jasper: orbicular jasper best known from Morgan Hill, California.
  • Brecciated jasper: jasper broken into fragments and naturally cemented back together.
  • Banded iron jasper: red jasper bands in ancient banded iron formations, which record low but rising oxygen in early oceans.

"Jaspers" that are not jasper

Several popular stones carry the jasper name without being jasper:

  • Bumble bee jasper is a trade name for a fibrous calcite from Mount Papandayan in Indonesia. It contains very little silica. Its yellow and orange colors come mainly from realgar, an arsenic mineral, and its black bands from pyrite. Polished pieces are generally considered fairly safe to handle, but wash your hands afterward.
  • Mookaite is radiolarite from the Kennedy Ranges in Western Australia, a rock formed from the silica skeletons of tiny marine organisms. It is sold under the jasper name.
  • Unakite is a metamorphic rock of pink feldspar, green epidote and quartz, first described in 1874 and named for the Unaka Range in the Great Smoky Mountains.

These stones are attractive in their own right, but it helps to know what you are buying, and how to care for it.

A favorite stone of the ancient world

Jasper was a favorite gem in the ancient world, and its name can be traced through Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Assyrian, Greek and Latin. The name is thought to mean "spotted or speckled stone".

  • Early tools: green jasper was used to make bow drills at Mehrgarh, in present-day Pakistan, in the fourth to fifth millennium BC.
  • Seals: on Minoan Crete, jasper was carved into seals around 1800 BC, found at the palace of Knossos.
  • Carvings: jasper was carved into rings, amulets, vases and ornaments, from a green jasper ring of Late Period Egypt to a red jasper basket in Moscow's Kremlin Armoury.
  • Scripture: the archaeologist Flinders Petrie suggested that the first stone on the High Priest's breastplate in the Hebrew Bible was a red jasper.

What is jasper traditionally associated with?

In modern crystal traditions, jasper, and red jasper in particular, is known as a grounding and stabilizing stone, associated with strength, endurance and steady energy. Red jasper is commonly linked with the root chakra and is often named as a stone for Aries. Ocean jasper is associated with calm and joy.

These are traditions and beliefs. They are part of why people choose jasper, not properties you can measure in the stone.

Raw, tumbled and polished jasper

Jasper is ideal for polishing: it is hard, opaque and colorful, with patterns that show best on a smooth face. It is sold as rough pieces, tumbles, palm stones, spheres, towers, pyramids, hearts and cabochons. No two pieces of patterned jasper are exactly alike.

Jasper jewelry

At 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, jasper is durable for beads, cabochons, pendants and rings.

How do you care for jasper?

  • Wash it with warm water and mild soap, then dry it.
  • Store it apart from harder gems such as topaz and sapphire.
  • Wash your hands after handling bumble bee "jasper", which contains an arsenic mineral.

How can you tell real jasper?

  • Opacity: jasper does not let light through, even at thin edges.
  • Hardness: at 6.5 to 7, jasper resists a steel blade. Softer stones sold as jasper, such as calcite-based bumble bee jasper, scratch easily.
  • Color: red, yellow, brown and green are the common jasper colors. Blue is very rare, so ask about blue "jasper".

Browse crystals and minerals at Digital Towns Market

Digital Towns Market

Jasper in stock

See all crystals and minerals

Frequently asked questions

What makes red jasper red?

Iron. The common reddish color of jasper comes from iron in the stone.

Is jasper a type of quartz?

Yes. Jasper is made mostly of very fine-grained quartz or chalcedony, with other minerals that give it color.

What is ocean jasper?

The trade name for an orbicular jasper, with rounded orbs and bands, found along the shores of northeast Madagascar.

Is bumble bee jasper real jasper?

No. It is a calcite-based stone from Indonesia, colored by realgar, an arsenic mineral, and pyrite. Wash your hands after handling it.

What is red jasper traditionally associated with?

In crystal traditions it is associated with grounding, strength and endurance, and linked with the root chakra. These are traditional meanings rather than measurable properties.

What is the difference between jasper and agate?

Both are fine-grained quartz. Jasper is opaque; agate is translucent and usually banded.

Sources