Ammolite Fossil Opalescent ~ Gemstone necklace with a 925 Sterling Silver eyelet ~ incl.


This ammolite is an absolute dream, very rare and magical, a perfect eye-catcher.


Material:
-Natural Ammolite stone set in 925 Sterling Silver

Mass:
-see photo with € piece comparison

On the back there is a small adhesive residue from a previous attachment to a holder, which failed.


Age of the stone: approx. 70 - 75 million years
On the history of ammolites:


Ammolite is a rare opalescent/opalescent gemstone. It is found primarily on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and consists of the fossilized remains of ammonites. Ammolite is also sold under the trade names calcentine or korite. In the languages ​​of the Blackfoot Indian tribes native to the area, the stone is called aapoak (small, crawling stone in the Kainai language, due to its play of colors) or iniskim ("buffalo stone").

During the Cretaceous period, North America contained a large subtropical inland sea, the Western Interior Seaway. Continental drift caused the younger part of the Rocky Mountains to fold, while the sea gradually disappeared. This warm sea was home to, among others, the ammonites Placenticeras meeki and Placenticeras intercalare, and, less frequently, Baculites compressus.

After death, their shells sank to the seafloor and were covered by clay (bentonite). In these bentonite sediment layers, the ammonites were largely crushed, but their shells remained intact. These shells consisted partly of nacre, i.e., fine, plate-like aragonite crystals embedded in a protein matrix.

In most fossilized shells, the aragonite was dissolved out because it is more soluble than, for example, calcite in the surrounding rock. The resulting cavities were often later filled with other material such as calcite or, more rarely, pyrite, or remained hollow. At temperatures above 400 °C, the more unstable aragonite transformed into the more stable calcite. Therefore, fossils with preserved aragonite are particularly rare.

However, the process was somewhat different for the ammonite shells from which ammolite formed. The aragonite was preserved, primarily due to the covering of impermeable volcanic ash that came from eruptions of the volcanoes in the developing Rocky Mountains. At the same time, the ammonite-bearing layers were not buried to great depths, so they did not heat up above 400 °C. During diagenesis, trace elements such as iron and magnesium migrated into the shells.

Completely well-preserved ammonites with visible lobe lines are rarely found. Ammonites up to 90 cm in size have been found, but opalescent ammonites are usually much smaller.
Characteristics
Ammolite consists primarily of aragonite, which comes directly from the original nacre in the ammonite shells. In addition to aragonite, calcite, quartzite, pyrite, and other minerals are present in varying proportions. The shell itself contains a number of trace elements (aluminum, barium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, strontium, titanium, and vanadium).



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"A stone is the condensed history of the universe"

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