Peridot: Out of This World!

August 22, 2019

Experts have stated that peridot may be one of the world’s oldest gems. According to the Earth scientists at the Natural History Museum in London, the Imilac meteorite is 4.5 million years old and contains olivine material (peridots) from the origin of the universe. It also contains meteoric iron because the Imilac is a type of pallasite meteorite. When this ancient meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere long ago, it exploded and scattered pieces across the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. In 1822, these pieces were discovered. It is estimated to have a total weight of 920 kilograms.

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