Mary Ellen Jasper Stromatolites
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Mary Ellen Jasper is a beautiful material that comes from Northern Minnesota. It was first discovered in the Mary Ellen Iron Mine in St. Louis County, Minnesota. This sub variety of jasper is know to have stromatolite fossils along with layers of hematite and quartz creating striking patterns of red, black, grays, and white. It is found in the Biwabik iron formation and is about 2 billion years old.
Stromatolite forming cyanobacteria 1.88 billion years old is responsible for the formation of this material. Stromatolites are some of the oldest fossils on earth. There are many species of stromatolites. At one time they filled all of the oceans on earth. Cyanobacteria was the first organism to produce oxygen from photosynthiesis. There was so much cyanobacteria during the Proterozoic Eon that oxygen became an abundant gas in the oceans and atmosphere.
In the oceans oxygen combined with iron to form iron oxide which fell to the ocean floor in such quantities that all of the major iron deposits on earth today resulted.
Native Americans believed Mary Ellen Jasper had great healing powers.
In the oceans oxygen combined with iron to form iron oxide which fell to the ocean floor in such quantities that all of the major iron deposits on earth today resulted.
Native Americans believed Mary Ellen Jasper had great healing powers.
