Amber,
as a natural plastic has no consistent chemical formula but consists basically
of three elements: Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen and sometimes Sulphur in
proportion to flora or fauna inclusions it holds.
Although the name "amber" is used more specifically for fossilised resin
which contains succinic acid (3 - 8 %), it is commonly applied to any
fossilised resin found around the world. Some purists have strong opinions
about this matter.
To
them, fossilised resin which posses no succinic acid should be classified
as retinite. Some even go as far as teaching that true "amber" only should
refer to resins of pines (Pinus succinifera) and/or other conifers of
the Araucaria Family (Araucariaceae) in the 50 million-year-old Eocene
deposits of the Baltic Sea region.
Dominican Republic amber's fossil resin comes from trees of the Hymenaea
family (succinic acid), related to the West Indian locust (Hymenaea courbaril).
Caribbean amber contains no succinic acid. But the fact is, that even
clear Baltic amber usually has lower levels of succinic acid, opaque amber
has more. Is clear amber therefore "less amber"?
According
to Dr. Jean Langenheim, UCSC, (professor emerita and research professor
of ecology and evolutionary biology, who has been studying amber and resins
for more than 40 years) the presence of nonterpenoid succinic acid is
of little value in characterizing fossil resins.
See Plant Resins: Chemistry, Evolution, Ecology, and Ethnobotany and The Fascinating World of Plant Resins (UCSC). And quite
some other scientists have a similar balanced opinions. Find more information
at Baltic v/s Dominican Amber.
Basic amber data are as follows:
Color: Yellow, orange,
red, brown, gold, almost black (with carbon) and white (creamy). In
the Dominican Republic: greenish and also with the typical blue hue.
■ Luster: Resinous
■ Transparency: Transparent
to translucent, but also opaque
■ Crystal System: does
not apply, amber is amorphous
■ Habits: Include nodules
in shales or sandstones and washed up on beaches. In Dominican Republic it is mined
■ Fracture: Conchoidal
■ Hardness (Mohs): 2+
(Dominican (-2)
■ Specific Gravity: 1.05
- 1.09, max 1.30 (extremely light, floats in a 10% salt solution)
■ Other Characteristics:
Can be burned, fluorescent usually under UV light. All Dominican amber
is strongly fluorescent, blue Dominican Amber is flourescent even
without an additional UV light source. Easy to charge staticly (see
below)
■ Chemistry: Approx. C10H16O
- C10H16O12 - C12H20O - 13C40H64O14
■ Class: Mineraloids
■ Locations: Baltic countries:
Prussia (Poland), Baltic Sea, Siberia, Dominican Republic, Burma,
Germany, Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, Romania, Sicily, and less
frequent in other countries.
■ Uses: Ornamental, gemstone
and semi-precious stone, scientific investigations (i.e. paleontology,
fossilology)
■ Origin of the name:
from Arabic anbar ambergris
The Greek
name for Amber is: electron. Around 600 BC, Greeks found that
by rubbing an electron (Amber) against a fur cloth, it would
attract particles of straw. For over 2000 years this strange effect
remained a mystery. But in the 1600's, Dr William Gilbert investigated
the reactions of amber and magnets and first recorded the word 'Electric'
in a report on the theory of magnetism.
Isn't it interesting that the words "Electricity" and "Electronic" are
related to this beautiful gemstone?
Much information
can be found at
The World of Amber
by Susie Ward Aber, Emporia State University
Emporia, Kansas, USA
and at
AMBER HOME, Garry Platt, United Kingdom |