Wednesday, November 05, 2014

All About Amber Part #2

Amber part 2.

As fossilized tree sap, amber has been used and prized for jewelry, decorations, medicine, perfume, and scientific research.  There have been many inclusions found in amber such as bugs, plants, lizards, beetles, pine cones, and more. 

The movie Jurassic Park made amber with mosquitoes famous.  But other bugs like spiders, gnats, termites, many types of beetles, and roaches are also common

Most common amber is yellow.  Green & red amber has been shown to be treated yellow amber.  Blue amber is different.  It is not treated amber but yellow amber that fluoresce blue or blue with a slight green tint.  This amber is limited to coming from the Dominican RepublicIndonesia, and Mexico.  The fluorescence is really just the surface of the amber absorbing all the colors of light except UV blue light.  It is really a rare phenomenon in nature as it gets enough UV light in regular daylight to activate.   It was originally described as yellow amber with an iridescent coating.

The chemical that is responsible for this phenomenon is a hydrocarbon called perylene. 

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