Eventually, the sea receded, and the ammonites, together with the sediment, turned into rock. Millions of ammonites and sediment from the ocean and mountain slopes were "raining" into the bottom. How did ancient marine creatures end up in the Rockies? Around 70 million years ago, a vast ocean known as the Western Interior Seaway laid to the east of the Rocky Mountains. Ammonite shells can be found in many other parts of the world, such as the UK or Madagascar, but even when they have some iridescence, the layers are often too fragmented or weak to make for a gemstone. Where Does Ammolite Come From?Īll of the notable world's production comes from a small area along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada, mainly in Alberta and Montana. When purchasing an ammolite gemstone, you are getting something exceptional, a gem rarer than nearly all others and shaped beneath the ocean for millions of years. The gemstone is the result of tough and expensive work, a full day's toil may produce a bucket's worth of rough stones, and an average of one cup of top quality gemstones emerges each day of the year. Blues and violets are more valuable because thin layers are more fragile and hence rarer. The thickness of the ammolite determines the dominant colors: thinner layers produce more blues and violets, thicker - reds and greens. Unlike most other gems where the shine comes from the light absorption and reflection, the iridescent color of ammolite comes from light interference inside thin layers stacked over one on another. Ammolite As A GemstoneĪn iridescent flash of color is possible in all colors of the spectrum, although green and red prevail. This sediment preserved the aragonite of their shelled remains, preventing it from converting to calcite. As the seas receded, the ammonites were buried by layers of bentonite sediment. Ammolite is almost always found in a host rock (matrix), mainly chalky clay or limestone. And only a tiny fraction of those found was preserved well enough to make for a valuable gemstone. It is important to note that ammolite is only a very thin sheet of material on the surface of the shell of ammonites - between 0.5 to 0.8 millimeters. Ammolite's nacre displays opal-like flashes of color, but often even brighter and more intensely colored. After our frame of reference has expanded, it became clear that it is not a snake but a fossilized shell.Īmmolite is composed primarily of aragonite - the same material that makes for the pearl shine, and the beauty of mother of pearl of abalone and oysters. A Native American local term for ammonites was aapoak - crawling stone. Because this legend was adding mystic value to these objects, ammonite sellers would often carve snakeheads on them. Historian Pliny called them ammonis cornua (horns of Ammon) after Egyptian god Ammon, portrayed as a ram-horned man.īecause early works of natural history compared the coiled form of the ammonite with that of a curled serpent, ammonites became widely known as snakestones. What Is So Special About Ammonites?Īmmonites had some peculiar chapters throughout the history, mainly because of their appearance: to our ancestors, they surely appeared as a stone, often very large, or shining in rainbow colors, yet resembling a living organism features in shape. Well-preserved ammolite also sold Calcenite or Korite, is much rarer than ammonites themselves. Ammolite is a gem ammonite, an iridescent layer on its fossilized shell. On the other end, ammolite is unique even among "organic gemstones" because it neither has a precise chemical formula nor precisely resembles material produced by living creatures. Ammonoids inhabited prehistoric tropical seas between 60 and 240 million years ago until they disappeared during the mass extinction event. They may look similar to nautilus, a modern floating creature, but they are more closely related to coleoids like cuttlefish and octopus. Ammonites are fossilized Ammonoids, a group of extinct marine floating and diving mollusks of the class Cephalopods with a spiral shell.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |