Moganite, monoclinic SiO2, is a component of microcrystalline, quartz-bearing, sinters of New Zealand derived from crystallization of non-crystalline and paracrystalline opaline silicas. It occurs at levels of <13 vol.% of the SiO2 phases present in sinters between 20,000 and 200,000 y old but is generally either absent or below the level of detection in Tertiary sinters. Unambiguous identification of moganite is most readily accomplished by laser Raman spectroscopy; the technique allows individual microtextural elements of a sinter's fabric to be analysed. Conventional scanning X-ray powder diffraction procedures are limited in their ability to discern the characteristic moganite diffraction lines from the very similar quartz pattern, especially in those samples where moganite is at low concentration and/or unanticipated. However, powder diffraction, using a position-sensitive detector system, allows not only the identification of the moganite pattern in the presence of a large proportion of quartz, but also semiquantitative estimates of the different silica phases present in bulk sinter samples of ~450 mg. Moganite is part of the sinter maturation sequence. It occurs as a metastable phase that will ultimately transform to quartz, given sufficient time or a change in ambient conditions.

Crystallite growth in natural agate samples has been investigated at temperatures of 350—550°C and 100 MPa pressure in the presence of water vapour. Initial crystallite coarsening is accompanied by the transformation of moganite to α-quartz that is apparently inhibited by residual moganite when the crystallite sizes reach ~50 nm. At 350—500°C the coarsening kinetics can be described by an empirical law developed to describe Zener pinning which incorporates the maximum crystallite size prior to growth inhibition: . Co = initial crystallite size, Cs = crystallite growth after time t, Cm = the maximum size achieved before inhibition and k is the rate constant that includes the activation energy which was found to be 51(±9) kJ mole—1. A more conventional isothermal growth rate law, = kt with n = 6.5, only applies at 550°C. Limited growth was obtained when small agate cubes were heated in an open furnace up to 122 d at 550°C, demonstrating that water vapour was essential for continued crystallite coarsening. The crystallite size and moganite content of agates formed under normal earth surface conditions from hosts aged 13 Ma to 3.5 Ga have also been determined. The high temperature crystallite growth rate law does not describe natural agate growth quantitatively but a qualitatively similar pattern is observed.

Agates from a 430 Ma host at Stockdale Beck, Cumbria, England have been characterized. The crystallite size of the Stockdale Beck agates was found to be ~60% greater than any other agates from five regions aged 400–1100 Ma. Raman spectroscopy identified moganite in all agates tested except those from Stockdale Beck. Infrared spectroscopy showed that the silanol content of the Stockdale Beck agates was near zero. The properties of agates from Stockdale Beck and the 1.84–3.48 Ga metamorphosed hosts found in Western Australia were similar but different from agates found in other hosts aged 400–1100 Ma. Cathodoluminescence demonstrates further differences between agates from hosts aged 13–1100 Ma and those from Stockdale Beck and Western Australia. Agates from the latter areas have a lower proportion of defects causing a red emission band (~660 nm) but an increased proportion of defects causing blue (~470 nm) and orange (~640 nm) emission bands. Agates found in hosts aged 13–1100 Ma are also differentiated from the Stockdale Beck and Western Australian agates in a ternary plot of the relative intensities of violet to blue to orange emission bands. Single scans producing this combination of colours are only found in the Stockdale Beck and Western Australian agates. The properties shown by the Stockdale Beck and Western Australian agates demonstrate that an agate or chalcedony infill can be used to identify post-deposition palaeoheating within a host rock.