Amber

Amber is a resin that is fossil is an assortment of hydrocarbons, resins, succinic acid and oils. It’s the resin that is fossilized of woods of the species Pinus succinifera from about 30 million years ago. In order to qualify as “amber” it isn’t sufficient for a tree resin merely to harden by losing its volatiles. The molecules have to polymerize, that may take millions of years, or at minimum 100,000 years. The amber that is oldest recovered dates to the Upper Carboniferous duration, about 320 million years ago. After polymerization, amber becomes somewhat less soluble in common solvents which are organic and so will not become sticky if wetted with alcohol, acetone or gasoline. Much associated with material marketed as “amber” (especially that from Colombia and Madagascar) is far too young become considered amber, and it is in reality just dried tree resin.

Amber is mostly seen as cabochons and it is understood for its inclusions of insects, pollen, leaves and other debris that is organic were trapped in the sticky resin that oozed from pine trees millions of years ago. Faceted Amber just isn’t rare, but is unusual.

Amber is situated in many localities around the entire world. Probably the most source that is notable be the Baltic Sea where it washes up on shore from submerged beds. Other locations include Burma, Dominican Republic, Romania, Russia, coal seams in Wyoming, USA, and Venezuela

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Chemical Formula: C12H20O
Succinic Acid
Molecular Weight: 180.29 gm
Composition: Hydrogen 11.18 % H 99.92 % H2O
Carbon 79.94 % C
Oxygen 8.87 % O
  100.00 % 99.92 % = TOTAL OXIDE

 

Crystallography: Amorphous
Crystal Habit: Amorphous. Nodular – Tuberose forms having irregular protuberances over the surface. Pulverulent – Forms a loose, poorly-coherent powdery mass.
Twinning: None

 

Cleavage: None
Fracture: Conchoidal
Tenacity: Brittle
Moh’s Hardness: 2.0 – 2.5
Density: 1.05 – 1.15 (g/cm3)
Luminescence: Some specimens may be Fluorescent.
Radioactivity: Not Radioactive

 

Color: Yellow, Colorless, Red, Brownish Red, Brown
Transparency: Transparent to Translucent
Luster: Resinous
Refractive Index: 1.54  Isotropic
Birefringence: 0.00  (Isotropic)
Dispersion: n/a
Pleochroism: n/a