Description
What looks like stone is, on closer inspection, frozen time. Shatter cones are the diagnostic proof of hypervelocity impact: concentric, striated conical fractures produced only by shock pressures exceeding 2–30 GPa. No other geological process produces them. Sudbury’s shatter cones formed 1.85 billion years ago in the second-largest confirmed impact on Earth. The Sudbury crater (now eroded to a basin) is 130 km across.
This specimen originates from Sudbury Basin, 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.
