How to turn your own corpse into a sparkling gem? It actually works!

Naturalist Pliny the Elder once said: On an opal, you can see ruby-like flames, amethyst-like spots, emerald-like green sea, colorful, seamless, and beautiful. It would be wonderful if the horrible bones could be turned into lively opals.

In terms of "turning their corpses into opals", many animals and plants have set successful examples:

Opal fossils of plants and animals from Lightning Ridge, Australia

The broken arm fossil of the Australian lobster ancestor

How many steps are there to turn a corpse into opal?

Buried in Lightning Ridge, Australia

Opal, as a beautiful gem, cannot be formed everywhere. So I suggest you find a place with good enough geological conditions to breed opal and bury yourself there.

If you can't find such a place, it doesn't matter, there is another way: travel back to Lightning Ridge, Australia 66 million years ago. All opalized fossils are currently only produced near this place, including snails, shells, animal teeth, bones, and even plant fruits.

Lightning Ridge is an inland town located in the north of New South Wales, Australia. The name "Lightning Ridge" originated in the 1870s, and is said to have been named after an unfortunate incident: a farmer and his 200 sheep were suddenly struck by lightning in the area. In the Cretaceous period 100 million years ago, Lightning Ridge was located in a shallow sea area, where dinosaurs and other ancient creatures thrived.

Conditions for becoming a fossil

You know, it is very difficult to turn a fossil into a common fossil after natural death. After the death of animals and plants, the remains must be buried quickly, not destroyed by other organisms or external conditions, and not decay too much, so that the fossil can be complete and the details are intact. At the same time, the burial environment must be stable and the mud and sand must be very fine.

However, this is only the first step in a long journey, and the chance of the remains becoming fossils is very low.

Ammonite fossils. Hard bones and teeth are the most common fossils

Reverse mold

Fossils can be divided into four categories: solid fossils, trace fossils, cast fossils, and molecular fossils.

Opalized fossils are basically cast fossils, and the formation process is similar to reverse casting: the remains of plants and animals are eroded over a long period of time, while the surrounding mud and sand are fine and solid, completely preserving the external shape of the remains and forming a cavity; then, calcium-rich liquid seeps into the cavity of the remains, gradually deposits and eventually fills the entire space.

The unique feature of Lightning Ridge in Australia is that the infiltrating fluid is rich in silica colloids. The silica colloid fluid that infiltrates the cavities of the debris gradually settles and fills the entire space; then the alternating dry and wet climate causes the groundwater level to rise and fall. The fall of the water level concentrates the silica solution, and finally completes the process of silicification fossilization (that is, opal).

In fact, it is already remarkable to have reached this point.

One in a million color changes

Opal is an opal with play-of-color effect. Opal is common, but only one in ten thousand opals will have play-of-color effect. This requires that the silica particles in the deposited opal structure have the same size, and the size of the particles is between 150 and 400 nanometers. The diffraction of visible light in the range of 400 to 700 nanometers produces play-of-color.

Only God can control this.

Opalized shell fossils from Australia

Everything is ready, only time is needed

Australian opal is called "sedimentary opal" and is mainly found in sedimentary rocks in Mesozoic basins. The Mesozoic era lasted from 252 million to 66 million years ago. Therefore, the opal fossils formed by the bones have been buried for at least 66 million years and have not been destroyed by geological activities - the probability of this is so low that it is inestimable.

Most of the parts that can be fossilized are relatively hard parts such as teeth and jaws. The most likely thing that humans can be preserved is probably a set of opal teeth.

Opalized mammal teeth from Australia

Australia's oldest monotreme mammal - STEROPODON GALMAN. Early Cretaceous, 146 million years ago. The original bone and tooth material has disappeared, completely replaced by opal, preserving every detail.

If you (your body) had endured all these hardships, what would have happened in the end?

You and your food deserve to be displayed in a museum.

There is a fossil that has turned into opal in the Natural History Museum in Sydney. It is a plesiosaur from the Triassic period. Its spine and most of its bones have turned into opal. This plesiosaur is strictly speaking a juvenile pliosaur, also known as a short-necked plesiosaur, and was named Eric. It is said that an opalized fish was found in its stomach and was named "Wanda".

"Eric" is named after the song Eric the Half-a-Bee by Monty Python, and Wanda comes from the title of the show A Fish called Wanda.

This dinosaur fossil was found in the Wee Warra mine near Lightning Ridge, Australia, and was identified as belonging to a new dinosaur, Weewarrasaurus, in March 2018. The picture shows the upper jaw with opal play of color.

Having said so much, I just want to say that it is impossible to complete opalization by relying on the power of nature. But now is the era of technology. If you want, you can mold the bones and turn them into anything you want. Just melt the hard and precious materials and pour them into the mold. You can turn them into gold, platinum, aluminum oxide or even ruby... It is also a very happy thing.

Author: Qu Zhi

Editor: Luna

The pictures in this article are from the Australian Opal Museum: http://www.australianopalcentre.com/

This article comes from Guokr and may not be reproduced without permission.

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