TerraTreasures and Adventures101 offer this authentic Dominican Amber gemstone

a Beautiful 3120gram (6.87 pounds) Sikhote-Alin Iron Meteorite
with beautiful regmaglypts
SA3120
$6,000.00 No Reserve

from wikipedia.org ..."Sikhote-Alin is an iron meteorite that fell in 1947 on the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in eastern Russia. This fall is among the largest meteorite showers in recent history."

History
The 10th anniversary stamp. It reproduces a painting by P. J. Medvedev.At around 10:30 am on February 12, 1947, eyewitnesses in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Primorye, Russia, observed a large bolide brighter than the Sun that came out of the north and descended at an angle of about 41 degrees. The bright flash and the deafening sound of the fall were observed for three hundred kilometres around the point of impact not far from Luchegorsk and approximately 440 km northeast of Vladivostok. A smoke trail, estimated at 32 km long, remained in the sky for several hours.

As the meteorite — traveling at a speed of about 14 km/s — entered the atmosphere, it began to break apart, and the fragments fell together. At an altitude of about 5.6 km, the largest mass apparently broke up in a violent explosion.

On November 20, 1957 the Soviet Union issued a stamp for the 10th anniversary of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite shower. It reproduces a painting by P. J. Medvedev, a Russian artist who witnessed the fall: he was sitting in his window starting a sketch when the fireball appeared, so he immediately began drawing what he saw.

Orbit
Because the meteorite fell during daytime, it was observed by many eyewitnesses. Evaluation of this observational data allowed V. G. Fesenkov, then chairman of the meteorite committee of the USSR Academy of Science, to estimate the meteoroid's orbit before it encountered the Earth. This orbit was ellipse-shaped, with its point of greatest distance from the sun situated within the asteroid belt, similar to many other small bodies crossing the orbit of the Earth. Such an orbit was probably created by collisions within the asteroid belt.

Size
Sikhote-Alin is a massive fall. The overall size of the meteoroid has been estimated at just under 900,000 kg. Krinov had estimated the post atmospheric mass of the meteoroid at some 70,000 kg. A more recent estimate by Tsvetkov (and others) puts the mass at around 100,000 kg.

Strewn field
The strewn field for this meteorite covered an elliptical area of about 1.3 km². Some of the fragments made craters, the largest of which was about 26 m across and 6 m deep. Fragments of the meteorite were also driven into the surrounding trees.

Composition and classification
The Sikhote-Alin meteorite is classified as an iron meteorite belonging to the chemical group IIAB and with a coarse octahedrite structure. It is composed of approximately 93% iron, 5.9% nickel, 0.42% cobalt, 0.46% phosphorus, and 0.28% sulfur, with trace amounts of germanium and iridium. Minerals present include taenite, plessite, troilite, chromite, kamacite, and schreibersite.

Specimens
Specimens of the Sikhote-Alin Meteorite are basically of two types
1: individual, thumbprinted or regmaglypted specimens, showing fusion crust and signs of atmospheric ablation 2: shrapnel or fragmented specimens, sharp edged pieces of torn metal showing evidence of violent fragmentation The first type probably broke off the main object early in the descent. These pieces are characterized by regmaglypts (cavities resembling thumb prints) in the surface of each specimen. The second type are fragments which were either torn apart during the atmospheric explosions or blasted apart upon impact on the frozen ground. Most were probably the result of the explosion at 5.6 km altitude.

A large specimen is on display in Moscow. Many other specimens are held by Russian Academy of Science and a great number of smaller specimens have made their way into the collector's market.

Click on this link to view an 18 minute documentary on the Sikhote Alin Meteorite (opens in a new window). In 1947, the Russian government sent an expedition to retrieve specimens.

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Some photos of our last amber excavations in the American Midwest June 2010

Some photos of our last amber excavations in Asia January 2010 (new top secret location for now)

Some photos of our amber excavations in August 2007 at La Toca and La Bucara amber mines

Description
This is an authentic Dominican Amber Gemstone excavated in the La Bucara Amber Mine in the Summer of 2010.

This beautiful authentic Dominican Amber gemstone is offered here with a complete satisfaction guarantee, if you are not satisfied with your purchase you can return any specimen within 14 days for a full refund.

Dominican Amber
In the Dominican Republic, Hymenaea trees are called Algorrobo. The Hymenaea tree exudes vast amounts of resin which over millions of years of pressure hardens into amber. Generally amber is found because a landslide along a steep slope in the mountains exposes veins of black lignite. If the lignite contains amber it is gradually extracted by digging along the vein with picks and shovels. After the amber is found it is chiseled by hand out of the shaft walls, put into burlap sacks and passed out of the mine where it is separated from the rock by machete. Larger chunks of amber make it possible to view inclusions almost immediately by holding the amber up to sunlight to determine if a large inclusion has been discovered. Fossil bearing amber is polished locally.To view photos and videos of our some of our amber excavations in the blue amber mines in mountains of the Dominican Republic and to see a small java applet of the amber mines click here - (opens in a new browser window).

Shipping and Insurance
Within the USA - shipping and insurance is $7.00 - we ship all specimens US Postal Service Priority Mail. Outside of the USA - shipping and insurance to any country outside of the USA including Canada is $27.00 - we ship US Postal Service Global Express Mail. If you require any other method of shipping please contact us.

Payment
Payment is required within 7 days of the end of the auction. We Accept Pay Pal. Multiple items can of course be combined for one shipping cost. We ship all specimens upon receipt of payment. Pay us Instantly and Securely with Pay Pal - fast, easy, and secure payments for all of your purchases!

About Us
We have been collecting amber in the field and prepping rough fossil amber specimens since 1993. Photographs of our specimens have appeared in National Geographic, Nature, Science, Scientific American, Discover, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and others. We have been featured in PaleoWorld's The Amber Hunters. We offer authentic museum quality Dominican Amber display specimens of rare insects in amber and also authentic rare Dominican rough unprepared amber for sale. Our collections include museum quality rare insects in amber, unusual botanicals and flowers in amber and also rough unprepared Dominican Amber gemstones. We have traveled many times to the Dominican Republic where we have chiseled beautiful amber gemstones out of the lignite layers deep in the amber mines north of Santiago. We have excavated in the Palo Quemado and Los CaCaos blue amber mines and also in La Nueva Toca and the world famous La Toca amber mines way up in the mountains north of Santiago. For many years we have extensively collected mid Cretaceous New Jersey amber in the Raritan formation of central New Jersey and have traveled many times to collect late Cretaceous and early Paleocene amber in the Hanna formation of eastern Wyoming. We have collected mid Cretaceous amber in the Black Creek formation of eastern North Carolina and we have spent weeks collecting mid Cretaceous amber in the northern most Tundra of Alaska. Some of our most recent collecting trips have been in October of 2003 to the western Aleutian Islands some 1000 miles west of Anchorage to explore and collect Miocene amber, August of 2004 and April of 2006 we were back in the Dominican Republic to collect Miocene amber from the Palo Quemado amber mines which have recently closed due to the miners finding little amber, we were back to the Dominican Republic in April of 2006 to video in the La Toca amber mines, and in August of 2007 we excavated in La Toca and La Bucara. The La Toca amber mines had much water whereas on the other ridgeline the La Bucara amber mines were nearly dry! We collected much amber from both La Toca and La Bucara. In January 2010 we have collected at a new site of early Eocene amber in Asia. As these specimens are examined and prepared we will post some additional photos of this new locality. In June 2010 we collected Hell Creek Amber in the American Midwest..

We have donated many hundreds of amber specimens to museums in the United States and have several dozen new species of insects in amber named after us. We have examined several thousand specimens of rough Burmese amber and have prepped many new Burmese fossil amber specimens. We have traveled to Europe with colleagues to examine unusual spectacular Dominican Amber specimens in private collections and we consider the amber curators of the museums in Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and New York City our friends. Exploring for and collecting amber along with the examination and research of amber is our passion.
To view photos and videos of our some of our amber excavations in the amber mines in mountains of the Dominican Republic and to see a small java applet of the amber mines click here - (opens in a new browser window). Our amber comes direct from the Dominican Republic amber mines east of the world famous La Toca amber mine. These specimens do not go through any middle men, we acquire these specimens from the miners and mine owners directly at the amber mines.

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