Ammolite ~ macrame gem chain

A whole new achievement & proud creation of us for you

Material: Waxed macramé yarn from Brazil - We use the highest quality yarn for this Arabic knotting technique.


Chain length (head width):
60cm


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


On the history of the Ammolites :

Ammolite is a rare opalescent/opalescent gemstone. It is mainly found on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and consists of the fossil remains of ammonites. Ammolite is also marketed under the trade names Calcentin or Korit. In the languages of the native Blackfoot Indian tribes, the stone is called Aapoak (small, creeping stone in the Kainai language due to 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. As a result of continental drift, the younger part of the Rocky Mountains unfolded, while the sea gradually disappeared. Among others, the ammonites Placenticeras meeki and Placenticeras intercalare and, more rarely, Baculites compressus lived in this warm sea.

Their shells sank to the seabed after death and were covered by clay (bentonite). In these bentonite sediment layers, most of the ammonites were crushed, but the shells were preserved. Some of these shells consisted of mother-of-pearl, i.e. fine platelet-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 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.

In the case of the ammonite shells from which ammolite was formed, however, the process was somewhat different. The aragonite was preserved, mainly due to the cover of impermeable volcanic ash from eruptions of the volcanoes of the forming Rocky Mountains. At the same time, the ammonite-containing layers did not go to too great depths, so that they did not heat up 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 praise lines can still be seen. Ammonites up to 90 cm in size have been found, but usually the opalescent ammonites are much smaller.
properties
Ammolite consists mainly of aragonite, which comes directly from the original mother-of-pearl in the shells of the ammonites. In addition to aragonite, calcite, quartzite, pyrite and other minerals are found in variable proportions. In the shell itself, a number of trace elements are found (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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