Ammolite Fossil Opalescent ~ Gemstone necklace with a 925 sterling silver eyelet ~ incl.


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


Material:
-Natural Ammolite stone set in 925 sterling silver

Dimensions:
-without eyelet pendant length: 34 x 16 mm

Chain length:
-45cm - we can make it longer (measurements via message)


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


Ammolite is a rare opalescent/opalescent gemstone. It is found primarily on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and consists of the fossil remains of ammonites. Ammolite is also offered under the trade names Calcentin or Korit. In the languages ​​of the local Blackfoot Indian tribes, the stone is called Aapoak (small, creeping stone in the Kainai language because of the play of colors) or Iniskim (“buffalo stone”).

During the Cretaceous period, North America was home to a large subtropical inland sea, the Western Interior Seaway. Continental drift caused the younger part of the Rocky Mountains to fold up while the sea gradually disappeared. The ammonites Placenticeras meeki and Placenticeras intercalare and, more rarely, Baculites compressus lived in this warm sea.

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

In most fossilized shells, the aragonite was removed because it is more soluble than, for example, calcite in the surrounding rock. The resulting cavities were later often 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 was formed. The aragonite was preserved, mainly because it was covered by impermeable volcanic ash, which came from eruptions of the volcanoes in the Rocky Mountains that were forming. At the same time, the ammonite-containing layers did not reach too great depths, so that they did not heat above 400 °C. During diagenesis, trace elements such as iron and magnesium migrated into the shells.

Only rarely are completely well-preserved ammonites found in which the lobe lines can still be seen. Ammonites up to 90 cm in size have been found, but usually the opalescent ammonites are much smaller.
Characteristics
Ammolite consists primarily of aragonite, which comes directly from the original mother-of-pearl in the shells of ammonites. In addition to aragonite, calcite, quartzite, pyrite and other minerals occur in variable proportions. A number of trace elements are found in the shell itself (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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