AMMOLITE

OPALESCENT ARAGONITE GEM

Grandmother-of-Pearl

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Why are these pieces of fossilized opalescent

aragonite shell so vibrant and iridescent?

How did they come to rival black opal for color and fire?

 

AmmoNite to AmmoLite!  ~GEMS FROM A PREHISTORIC SEA~

About 75 million years ago in a shallow prehistoric sea, a ravenous reptile sank its peg-like teeth into the thick shelled body of an ammonite.  The ammonite fought for its life with its tentacles, but was no match for the nine meter long monosaur.  The crocodilian reptile extracted the mollusk's squid-like shaped body from its shell armor and devoured it.  The punctured empty shell sank slowly to the sea floor, where it was eventually buried and crushed by tons of mud flowing in from a nearby river.  Today that shell has become one of the earth's most unique and rare gems, ammolite.

Ammolite is the smooth crushed surface of the shell which housed the soft body of the now extinct ammonite creature.  It took specific conditions to create the ammolite.   Minerals and elements present in the mud sediments that buried these creatures metamorphosed them into beautiful specimens.  As such, this fossilized "grandmother-of-pearl" displays a dazzling array of colors.  On the crushed gem material each color is outlined by thin black lines, creating a mosaic effect similar to a stained glass window.  While some gems are predominantly one color, others reflect the entire spectrum.

Reds and Greens are the most common hues, while blues and violets are rare and hence more sought after and valuable.  Whole pieces of uncrushed material shell glowing in several directions showing broad planes of reds and greens are beautiful in their own right.   However, the highest quality gems are made from more fragmented and finely crushed material that reflect light and color in all directions, making the gem come alive with a rich shimmering vibrance.

By Michael Chaykowski

 

Ammonites inhabited the seas of the world.  Their fossilized remains can be found anywhere in the world where they existed, died and were buried in prehistoric sea beds. However, ammonites that display the most vivid colors and whose aragonite is treasured as gem, can only be found in the prehistoric sea mud sediments of the bearpaw formation located in the province of Alberta, Canada.

Ammonites inhabited an prehistoric inland subtropical sea which bordered the Rocky Mountains.  As the seas receded, the ammonites were buried and crushed by tons of sediments.  Their shelled remains were impregnated by trace elements present in these sediments, the most common of these being iron, which accounts for the predominance of the green colors.

A unique prehistoric treasure             

It is estimated that only 1 out of 100 ammonite specimens found in the Alberta area are suitable for gem quality ammolite.  About 10 tons of rock and overburden must be sifted to recover 2 kilograms of ammolite. 

Ammolite is considered the rarest organic gem material.  It is soft, delicate, and requires special processing techniques known only to a few experts specializing in this commercial industry.

The International Colored Gemstone Association [ICA] has officially recognized Ammolite as a precious organic gemstone since 1981.  Geological Institute of America [GIA] has also officially recognized ammolite as a newcomer to the world gem market, in the form of iridescent aragonite.   Being that it is only found in Alberta, ammolite has been adopted as the province's official gemstone.