Description
Consider what had to happen for this specimen to exist. The Gowganda tillite (2.3 billion years old) is evidence of Earth’s first global glaciation — the ‘Huronian’ ice age that followed the Great Oxidation Event. Glaciers transported boulders of mixed composition and deposited them in an unsorted matrix. This rock records a time when ice sheets reached the equator, long before complex life evolved.
This specimen originates from Gowganda Formation, Ontario, Canada, one of the world’s most significant localities for this type of material. Collectors and scientists have drawn from this region for generations, and for good reason: the combination of geological conditions here produces specimens of exceptional quality and clarity.
Every specimen is unique. Photographs approximate the visual experience, but the real thing — its weight, its luster under a raking light, the way it catches the corner of your eye — can only be experienced directly.
