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amber - gold of the north
Three elements -- carbon, oxygen and hydrogen -- are always present in amber in the following proportions: 67-87% carbon, 15% oxygen, 8.5-11% hydrogen.
Due to oxidation, amber's color changes over time. Pieces of translucent yellow amber will gradually darken upon exposure, becoming red and eventually completely dark.
Amber is known to mineralogists as succinite , from the Latin succinum , which means "amber" (which is itself from the Latin succus , meaning "sap"). Succinic acid, found in most Baltic amber, is also found in various resins and lignites ('young' coal), fossilized wood, unripe grapes, urine and blood, as well as the thymus gland of calves and the spleen of cattle.
Close relatives of the hymenaea protera , such as hymenaea verrucosa still exist within the sub continent of Africa and on some West Indian islands.
 liquid gold
Sometimes referred to as "liquid gold," amber is a yellow fossilized gum that was secreted by coniferous trees 50 million years ago. Amber can be found in hundreds of places around the world, but the two most prolific areas for high quality amber are the Baltic region -- where over 95% of all amber in the world is excavated -- and the Dominican Republic.

fly trapped in amber
photo: nhm-la

Preserved only under special conditions (because it oxidizes and degrades when exposed to oxygen), amber is almost always found in dense wet sediments such as clay and sand that formed at the bottom of ancient lagoons or river deltas.
In both the Baltic and the Dominican Republic, the climate under which the resin-producing trees grew was sub tropical. While the Dominican Republic is still surrounded by the tropical Caribbean Sea, sixty million years ago the frigid, stormy Baltic Sea mirrored the balmy Mediterranean of today.
The Baltic and Dominican Republic each had unique tree types that produced the original resins. In the Dominican Republic, it was the extinct hymenaea protera which had its origins in Africa.
For many years, the presence of a unique 'marker,' succinic acid, present in Baltic amber -- but thought not to exist in any living species of pine -- led to the conclusion that the Baltic "amber tree," pinites succinifer, was long extinct. However, the discovery of pseudolarix pine which contains succinic acid -- growing on China's eastern mountain ranges -- has made scientists question their old assumptions.
Much of the amber used in commercial jewelry is actually reconstituted -- a process that eliminates natural inclusions but also makes it harder and less prone to scratching.
Several tests can be performed to determine if amber is natural or man-made. Of these, only the flotation test is recommended for novices: make a saturated solution of regular table salt and water and place the piece of amber in the mixture -- if it floats it's amber -- if it sinks it's man-made.
The word "Baltic" comes from the Indo-European root balt, meaning "white." Thus Baltic Sea means White Sea .
 mechanized mining

amber mine; kalingrad
photo: baltic fair

For many centuries, amber was gleaned from Baltic beaches by hand, after great storms battering the ocean floor loosened amber chunks, heaving them onto the beach within easy reach. However, in the second half of the nineteenth century as demand increased, mechanical dredging and "pit" mining operations began on the Baltic, going right to the source on old ocean floor. Since then, millions of pounds of Baltic amber have been mined.
Baltic "pit" amber lies in the rock strata called "blue earth." The biggest known source of �blue earth� is near Jantarny (formerly Palmnicken), a small town in the Kaliningrad region of Russia, home to the world largest amber mine.

symbolic attributes

geographic
national gemDominican Republic
metaphysical
astrological gem Taurus
energy projective / yang
planet Sun
element fire