Baltic amber

Amber. The hardest of all the resins, amber is stiU collected along the shores of the Baltic Sea. The pieces are poHshed to an attractive pale yeUow-to-dark brown stone and made into ornamental objects. 

Amber deriving from the extinct species Pinus succinifera is known as Baltic amber or succinite and consists of dimers of abietic acids and copolymers of communol and communic acid. Amber is less soluble than the other resins, but partially soluble in hot oil, so it has been used as an ingredient in varnish. 

Beck, C.W., Wilbur, E., Meret, S., Kossove, D. and Kermani, K. (1965). The infrared spectra of amber and the identification of Baltic amber. Archaeometry 8 96-109. 

Mills, J.S., White, R. and Gough, LJ. (1984/85). The chemical composition of Baltic amber. Chemistry and Geology 47 15-39. 

Figure 4.8 Infrared absorption spectrum of amber from the Baltic coast, showing the characteristic Baltic shoulder at 8.7 pm (1150 cm-1). From Beck et al. (1965 104) with permission from the University of Oxford.

Infrared absorption spectrum of amber from the Baltic coast 90... 

Gough LJ, Mills JS, The composition of succinite (Baltic amber), Nature 239 527-528,1972. 

Amber has been obtained for over 2,000 years from the lignite-bearing Tertiary sandstones on the coast of the Baltic Sea from Gdansk to LiepSija also from Denmark, Sweden and the other Baltic countries. Sicily furnishes a brownish-red amber that is fluorescent. 

Poinar, G. (2003) A rhabdocoel turbellarian (Platyhelminthes, Typhlopanoida) in Baltic amber with a review of fossil and sub-fossil platyhelminths. Invertebrate Biology 122, 308-312. 

Amber is fossilized tree resin that hardened over millions of years and now is valued as a gem. Baltic amber is thought to be hardened sap from pine trees. It is normally yellow-brown in color, but the shades vary from almost white to almost black. Although sometimes completely clear, amber often contains inclusions of insects or other matter, often considered desirable. Much amber is obtained along the shores of the Baltic Sea, but it is also found along the coasts of Sicily, Romania, and Myanmar. 

Amber can be formed by any plant that produces sap or resin. It is not specific to pine trees, as is commonly believed. The amber found in the Baltic region of Eastern Europe was indeed formed in a huge pine forest that covered that area about 10 million years ago, during the Miocene Epoch. Much of today s commercial amber is mined in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. These deposits are older than the European amber, and were formed by large shrubs in the Pea family. 

Samples were obtained on site by T. A. Lee, Jr., C. J. Welch, and R. Lowe. Isolated samples of amber from Simojovel and the sample from the Dominican Republic were provided by G. O. Poinar, Jr. (University of California, Berkeley). The samples of Baltic amber were provided by C. W. Beck (Vassar College). 

On the basis of these comparisons, 13C NMR spectroscopy can easily distinguish the two New World ambers from Baltic amber. Normally, Mexican and Dominican ambers are distinguishable on the basis of the exometh-... 

Figure 3. The 13C NMR spectra of Mexican amber from Simojovel and Baltic amber taken with interrupted proton decoupling.

Amber deposits are found worldwide and are reckoned to be firom 300 to 15 million years old. The two best known deposits are those in the Baltic region and in the Dominican Republic. 

Known as the Gold of the North, Baltic amber is the best known of all ambers. It has the longest history and is the most plentiful. 

Around 50 million years ago Scandinavia and the Baltic formed one land mass covered in forests. The climate was subtropical. It is here that Baltic amber was formed between 45 and 30 million years ago. It possibly came finm different trees, though the one which is popularly thought to have produced the resin has been named Pinus succmtfera, as it bore finit resembling pine cones and the resin contains succinic acid. 

Baltic amber is found as secondary deposits in much of Denmark and southern Sweden, in layers laid down 30 000 years ago. It is not mined but turns up when foundations are laid for bridges or buildings. 

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