Is amber a witness to the cataclysm?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Amber is a fossilized fossilized resin. Experts distinguish about two hundred and eighty varieties of amber, from "sea" to "earthy", which are found on the Amber Coast.

This picture briefly tells about the origin of amber. However, in more detail about this a little later …

The only industrial enterprise in the world for the extraction of amber (by open method in quarries with a strong water jet they wash out the amber-bearing so-called “blue earth” (clay)) is located in the village of Yantarny, Kaliningrad region of Russia. Amber deposits in the Kaliningrad region account for at least 90% of the world (outdated data).

Kaliningrad amber plant

Like everything organic, amber is flammable - it ignites from the flame of a match. And as short-lived as a gemstone:

Photoaging of amber - color transition in one stone from white to brown.

Amber is found in Sicily (there it is called simethite), in Romania (Rumanite), Myanmar (Burmite), Canada, in some places on the Atlantic coast of the United States, Mexico, the Dominican Republic (Dominican amber), in Ukraine (three explored deposits in the Rovno region: Rokitnovsky, Dubrovitsky, Vladimiretsky districts, and one in the Volyn region), in a small amount on the coast of the Baltic countries. And also on Taimyr.

Amber mining in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea

Placers of amber on the coast after a storm

Residents of the town of Pionersky collect amber thrown onto the beach after a storm.

Amber mining report

The system fights illegal amber mining

Handicraft amber mining in Poland. Please note that the remains of ancient organic matter (pieces of vegetation) are washed out with amber from a depth of 10 m.

Amber is blue. There are only in Central America, more precisely - in Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic.

Tropical blue amber tends to phosphoresce (presumably due to the admixture of volcanic ash in the hardened resin). Formed during a volcanic disaster?

It turns out that there are a number of myths that are associated with the deposits of amber, its origin and properties.

Myth No. 1 The Kaliningrad region contains about 90% of the world's amber reserves

The myth has its origins in the USSR. This nonsense, some narrow-minded person squeezed even into Wikipedia.

Amber is as much a mineral as coal. By the way, streaks of amber are found in coal seams.

And its reserves at different depths lie around the globe. It is mined in small quantities all over the world from the Dominican Republic to Burma, from Canada to Colombia. There are explored reserves of thousands of tons in Ukraine and Poland. Almost the entire Baltic region is rich in deposits, including Germany, Lithuania and Latvia. In North America, it occurs at a depth of 300m, which is why we do not know about those deposits. There are hardly more than a third of the world's proven reserves on the Baltic coast of Russia.

It's just that most people don't care about amber. This stone is not remarkable in anything special, except that it is very popular in China.

Myth No. 2 Amber is the fossilized resin of conifers

Maybe amber is resin, maybe conifers, but there is one "but". In pieces of amber you can find anything, and beetles, and spiders, and a frog, and an animal, and even an egg of Koshchei the Immortal. Only one inclusion is missing in the "resin of conifers" - needles. Go around half the world, collect all the pieces of amber with inclusions of all flora and fauna, but nowhere you will find more than one pine needle in them.

That is, coniferous trees millions of years ago were not conifers at all, but maybe they were palms or baobabs, go figure it out now.

Other myths

In amber, inclusions are often found, the so-called "inclusions" - insects, arthropods, adhering to a drop of resin (photos are clickable):

So, according to science, amber is first released from the bark of a tree in the form of a sticky liquid, and then, by polymerization, turns into solid amber. In the open air, it gradually collapses. That is why amber must be quickly buried in dense sedimentary rocks.

And if you think about it? How does this tree (namely the ancient pine) begin to “cry” with resin? Without damaging the trunk, pines often start to release resin just like that? Do you know such examples? After all, resin is what a tree heals its wounds with.

In 50-60. 20c. and earlier, the harvest of pine resin was widespread, which left such wounds on the trees:

And such a pine has never been used for construction. without resin, the wood rotted quickly.

Or how in such quantities could insects get into the resin? This is not currently the case. Are the pines not the same? Will they not grind? They're lying. And the amount of resin leaked from the trunks was colossal:

It turns out that if we have such huge deposits of petrified resin, then in the past there was a massive damage to ancient trees. What could lead to this? The giant force of hurricanes? So there are amber deposits on different shores of the oceans. The answer is given by the scientists themselves: "amber should be quickly buried in dense sedimentary rocks."

What does fast mean? I think within hours or a few days, otherwise the resin is destroyed in the air. The layer of sand and clay, in which the amber deposits rest, is said that the ancient damaged, broken forest was covered with a flood, a stream of a mixture of water, sand and silt. It is surprising that in these amber deposits the trunks of the trees themselves are not found! But this can be explained by the fact that the trunks were dragged by the stream far into the ocean, and the resin poured out of the trees into the ground and petrified in the absence of oxygen.

Interesting information about the oxygen content in amber air bubbles:

Thanks to tiny air bubbles frozen in amber 80 million years ago, you can get data about the Earth's atmosphere during the era of the dinosaurs. Research shows that at that time, the earth's atmosphere contained twice as much oxygen as it does now. This means that it was 42 percent. Over time, the oxygen content decreased, and the study of air bubbles in amber already in the Cretaceous period shows that the oxygen content then reached 32 percent. Link

2. Once the air of the Earth consisted of 38% oxygen and 1% carbon dioxide (this is shown by the study of air bubbles in amber). Today, due to environmental pollution and other factors, oxygen in our air is only 19%. Link

3. The oxygen content in the Earth's atmosphere is steadily decreasing. Millions of years ago it was about 40% (according to the analysis of air bubbles of amber), by the beginning of the 20th century - 24%, now it does not exceed 20% (although it is considered 20, 8%). In the atmosphere of megalopolises, oxygen is no more than 15%, and in the industrial areas of large cities, its concentration often approaches the limit of 8 - 9%, which is dangerous for humans. Link

4. Scientists have determined the gas composition in air bubbles, which are often found in amber - the fossilized resin of ancient trees, and measured the pressure in them. The oxygen content in the bubble turned out to be 28% (while in the modern atmosphere at the surface of the earth - 21%). Link

5. Thanks to tiny air bubbles frozen in amber 80 million years ago, scientists are given the opportunity to obtain data on the Earth's atmosphere in the era of the dinosaurs. Preliminary studies have shown that the oldest atmosphere contained two 2 more oxygen than it does now. Link

One can disagree with the age of amber, as with many things in geochronology, it is better to look at the facts, and not at what scientists want to see in them.

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