Photographer: Brian Berger@velvetboxsociety 

A piece of opal containing a preserved insect has recently been found on the island of Java, Indonesia. Such an incredible thing has never been seen before. Opal is a colourful gemstone composed of silica (similar to window glass) with a small amount of water in its chemical structure.

Insects have often been found in amber (technically not a gemstone)—originally sticky tree resin. During the global Flood, countless uprooted and damaged trees exuded resin in which animal and plant remains became trapped. Even scientists who don’t believe in a global Flood acknowledge that the resin must have hardened quickly.

However, opal is widely believed to form very slowly from watery solutions over huge time periods. Yet the Javanese insect was obviously quite quickly preserved before decay could set in. The opal’s authenticity was confirmed by the Gemological Institute of America.

Some scientists, anxious to hold onto long-age belief, speculate the insect was first trapped in amber, which later transformed into opal—but there is no evidence for this.

Australian creationist Dr Len Cram, who earned his PhD from research into opal formation, observed the colours of opalescence beginning to form in his solutions in weeks, and estimated that complete hardening into gem-quality opal would take only decades. The new insect discovery suggests that, under ideal natural conditions, even faster rates of formation are possible. This makes complete sense in the light of the Bible’s young age for the earth.

• Fossilized insect discovered not in amber, but in opal, geologyin.com, 23 Feb 2019.
• Pickrell, J., Strange fossil may be rare insect preserved in gemstone, nationalgeographic.com, 30 Jan 2019.
• Hartnett, J., Opalized fossils and pseudo-fossils, Creation 39(4):52–53, 2017; creation.com/opalized.