A moment of impact captured 14,400,000 years ago...

Jewelry Details

New! We've added a new style of Moldavite jewelry to the site with a bezel setting!

With a bezel setting the stones are secured by a single ring of metal as opposed to a claw-type action. This style uses significantly more silver than the prongs and results in a more upscale look.

Available as a pendant necklace or earrings, each jewelry piece comes in a decorative box and includes a small information card about the specimen. The card serves as the certificate of authenticity and can be found underneath the padded lining of the display box.

Above: The Single Bezel Pendant Necklace in the padded storage box. The color difference from the main image is due to lack of backlighting.

The jewelry pieces are shipped within a small anti-tarnish bag to protect the silver elements of the piece during storage and transport. You may wish to keep this bag to store your pieces when you are not wearing them.

• The Moldavite pendant necklace features a single fragment of Moldavite, approximately 1/4 to 1/2-inch in size. The Moldavite is displayed in a custom-made, sterling silver bezel which is strung on a box-style chain. The chain measures 18-inches (~45cm) and is also made of sterling silver. The complete necklace comes in a decorative box and includes a small information card about the specimen. This necklace is available with a single or double sterling silver bezel.
• The Moldavite earrings features two (2) fragments of Moldavite, approximately 1/4-inch in size. As with the pendant necklace, each Moldavite fragment is held in a sterling silver double bezel.

Please Note: Asteroid collisions with planetary bodies rarely produce uniform results at this scale. Therefore, size, shape, and color will vary widely.

A Quick Word About Garment Color Choices and Moldavite Appearance

As with any clear stone, the color of the underlying garment can have a dramatic effect on the brightness of the Moldavite. If the garment is dark, the Moldavite will appear rich and dramatic. If the garment is bright, the Moldavite will shine.

The angle of the light can also brighten the Moldavite, though this is more apparent with prong settings than bezel settings as the stone interacts more freely with natural light.

We've included images on this page of backlit and non-backlit pieces so that you can get a sense of how dynamic this material can be in different settings.

More About Moldavite

For many years, a pastoral region of southern Germany was thought to be the remains of an ancient volcanic crater.  Imagine the surprise when it was discovered that the Nördlingen Ries Basin was in fact an asteroid impact site some 14,400,000 years earlier.

Above: Relief map showing the impact crater of the Nördlingen Ries Basin

In an instant, a 1.5km wide asteroid released 2.4×10^21 joules - enough energy to power the entire modern human world for more than six years. This tremendous blast gouged out hundreds of cubic kilometers of material and created a complex array of materials, from new metamorphic rocks studded with impact diamonds to stunning, green gems called Moldavite.

Above: Moldavite fragments

Current research suggests Moldavite was created at the very instant of impact when layers of surface rock vaporized and mingled with the remains of the impact body. Essentially molten glass, this vitreous substance cooled in flight and rained in an east-northeast arc 450km from the impact site.

Nearer to the crater, a dense ejecta blanket formed from a melange or breccia of sedimentary rock. Pockets of Suevite formed as well. Suevite is a metamorphic rock composed of ancient "basement layer" rocks, granite and gneiss, shocked by the intense release of energy and recombined. The power released was enough to instantly form millions of micro-diamonds.

Above: Diagram of the impact crater.

After the impact, a deep, alkaline lake formed in the crater, following a path from supersaline to freshwater over many millennia. The change to freshwater was due to erosion of the crater rim and the eventual formation of an outlet lake. Today, the lake is gone, but even millions of years later the remains of the crater (24km wide and 100-150m deep) speak to the power of the impact. 

About Nördlingen

The medieval town of Nördlingen sits near the center of the Nördlingen Ries crater.  Most of the town is built of Suevite and the "Bunte Breccia" formed during the impact, including the 15th-century Georgskirche pictured here.  If the town looks familiar it may be due to the fact that it served as the backdrop for the final flyover scene at the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971).

Above: The town of Nördlingen

Above: Back of the Specimen Card