Jem & Fossil

02/05/2013

The video for this article is hilarious.
Highlights:
*The face of the guy who found it.
*The very end.
Enjoy! (:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-buzz/amateur-australian-prospector-finds-huge-gold-nugget-195924583.html

An Australian prospector has made a discovery many before him have missed — a gold nugget worth $300,000. A prospector searching near the town of Ballarat, in an area prospectors have been searching for 162 years. He reportedly found the … Continue reading →

11/20/2012

Tangerine Quartz, perfect "Key" indentation
**The pale red/orange color is caused by a thin, natural veil of Hematite, growing on the surface of the crystal.
Brazil | 1" L x 7/16" W
1.5g | 7.5cts
$6

11/17/2012

Now THAT, right there, is a sea monster. (:

This is an ammonite fossil - a group of cephalopods closely related to squids and octopuses that lived between the Devonian and Cretaceous periods. They were thought to be voracious predators and as you can see some grew to be as large as a person.
They become extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period along with non-avian dinosaurs and many other groups of animals.

11/16/2012

Jet, tumbled | England
Mohs Hardness: 2.5 | amorphous structure
$4-$7, by size (varied sizes shown)
**Jet, mined since ~1400BC, is actually a mineraloid, rather than a mineral. It sometimes goes by the name "Black Amber", and like amber, it may induce an electric charge when rubbed. However it is not amber, but rather the remains of wood, immersed in stagnant water, millions of years ago, before being compacted in the earth, and fossilizing under extreme pressures.
So, ..it's actually closer to coal than amber. And in fact, when burned or touched with a hot implement, it exudes the scent of coal.

*Known as the "sympathy stone", it was used extensively in Victorian "mourning jewelry", to bring grief to the surface to be healed and alleviated. While in Medieval times, Jet was used to cure a fever.

11/05/2012

Spiderweb Turquoise, Stabilized Rough
Hubei Province, China | A-Grade Green
55.7g, 278.50ct | 2" L x 1" H x 1.5" W
Hardness: 4.5
YOUR PRICE: $57 OBO :)

(Normal Price: $2 per rough gram: $111.40)

11/02/2012

Specular Hematite, Rough
23.1g/115.50ct
Loc: Michigan
Hardness: 5.5–6.5
*Sparkly, glittery, very shiney... Impossible to really show the sparkles in a photo. ***Rough Hematite is delicate, so be gentle. It will also leave a little glitter on your hands.
$3.00

10/12/2012

Wow!

DARVAZA GAS CRATER, THE GATE TO HELL

Though this may at first glance resemble a lava lake, it is a gas crater in Karakum desert in Turkmenistan that has been on fire for the last 41 years. The Darvaza (also known as Derweze) area is rich in natural gas. The crater is 60 metres wide and 20 metres deep and its fires can be seen glowing for kilometres around. The hole was not created by nature but by a Soviet drilling rig that in 1971 accidentally tapped into a massive underground natural gas cavern, which then caused the ground to collapse and the drilling rig in its entirety to fall in. As a pocket of gas had been punctured, poisonous fumes started leaking out of the pit. To prevent this gas escaping into the atmosphere, the Soviet geologists decided to set the pit on fire. The hope was that the fire would use up all its fuel in a few days; instead the crater has been burning ever since.

You can watch a video of the flaming crater here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEjoga1yrn0

See a previous post on Darvaza here: http://on.fb.me/Q8f0bw

-TEL

http://atlasobscura.com/place/the-gates-of-hell; http://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/06/door-to-hell-burning-gas-crater-in.html; http://turkmen.traveler.uz/component/photos/album/238
Image credit: http://foxwolf333.tumblr.com/post/29232689164/malformalady-the-darvaza-gas-crater-a-raging

10/09/2012

This page is always growing and changing!! Check back frequently!!

If you don't like a price, make me an offer!

If you don't see a price for an individual item, it could be for a list of reasons. -It does Not mean it's a high price! So don't be shy, ask away (:

**Genuine fossils**
Guaranteed.

ENJOY! (:

10/08/2012

Green Fluorite Octahedrons
Excellent geometry and clarity | *Some rainbows.
Loc: Namibia, Africa
Size: Roughly 1", on average.
$5 for 1, discounts for multiples!

10/08/2012

When we were children, we would pick up stones. We never asked why. We just held them, and kept them in our pockets, to hold them again real soon. They'd come and go. It was okay. We never questioned it, we just held them. ...Let's not forget that.

$ ***When purchasing multiple items, Always ask for a combo deal! I will play with the math wherever possible, and Hook It Up!*** $

(*Please note that many of these stones are a bit larger than the average pocket rock, and are priced accordingly. USE CAUTION when putting multiple stones in your pocket, to prevent losing your pants!)

Thank you.
-the management

10/04/2012

I

Hatzegopteryx had a wingspan of about 10 metres - making it one of the largest known flying animals of all time.
This can be a little hard to visualize, so check this image out. Despite its size, Hatzegopteryx's hollow skeleton means that the pterosaur only weighs about 1/6 as much as the giraffe.

Image courtesy of Mark Witton, at www.markwitton.com