Jasper
A variety of chert colored in shades of red, yellow, orange, or brown due to the presence of iron impurities (Ebright n.d.). It often has a lustrous and waxy appearance. Heat treating jasper generally causes it to look waxier and redder. Point of Rocks in Frederick County was a well-known jasper outcrop, and other major sources are located in Berks County, PA, Warren and Culpepper counties, VA., and in Cecil County, MD and New Castle County, DE, in the area around Newark (Iron Hill). Jasper is also found in cobble/pebble form in gravel deposits on the coastal plain of Maryland. When buried in tidal marshes, the surface color and appearance of iron-rich stones such as jasper often change. Under these conditions, jasper can be indistinguishable from other chert (Lowery and Wagner 2012).
