Coober Pedy
An opal-mining town in the desert of South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide, that supplies most of the world's gem-quality opal and where many people live in dugouts cut into the rock against the heat.
Dated events and their evidence
- about 110,000,000 years ago mainstream
the opal's host rocks are laid down as mud and volcanic sediment in the shallow, cold Eromanga Sea of the Early Cretaceous source - about 80,000,000 years ago disputed
between about 97 and 60 million years ago, during a long uplift, acidic weathering of those rocks possibly formed the bulk of the precious opal (Rey 2013; the timing is debated) source - 1915 CE mainstream
opal is first found here on 1 February 1915, and the town grows around the field source
Where
29.0111° S, 134.7556° E
Sources
- https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2013.784219
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2013.10.013
- https://doi.org/10.22459/ah.34.2011.09
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coober_Pedy
- https://ozgeology.com/blogs/news/an-entire-town-built-beneath-the-australian-desert
Each event carries Aion's own evidence grade (mainstream, disputed or speculative). This page repeats what the globe shows for this place.