Baltic Amber Handbook

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Introduction
Kurt Vonnegut once said: “Here we are, trapped in the amber of the
moment.”


Perhaps he was right, because Amber has a certain mystery
surrounding it. Obviously, there are different types of stones such
as Baltic Amber - a beautiful fossil resin resulting from trees, with
an origin dating from 50 million years ago. It is believed that this
gem is the result of a Northern European pine tree that produced
large amounts of resin during extremely warm climate changes.
Another interesting fact beside age, history and diversity is that
Baltic Amber is one of the rarest types in the Amber family. The

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world’s finest Amber is considered to be Baltic Amber from the
Baltic Sea.

Amber can be found practically anywhere, underwater or
underground. The European places where large quantities of Amber
are found are Russia, specifically Kaliningrad, holding over 90% of
the world’s Amber resources; the Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia
and Estonia, where it can be found along the coasts; Poland, where
it is washed up on the shores and Ukraine, where the Ukrainian
Amber is extracted, although it is not as valuable as Baltic Amber.
Baltic Amber is fascinating not only for the reasons above. It is truly
a wonder of nature. For example, it can float on salt water, but it
sinks in fresh. When it interacts with fire, Amber stones produce a
soft burning-pine aroma, the main reason to why it is often used in
Aromatherapies and in Medicine. In Aromatherapy, Baltic Amber is

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used for its calming effects. It is seen as a soft material, with an
exquisite variety of shades and colors, tones and hues. And above
all, each stone is unique and never the same another. These
beautiful, mysterious features are the result of chemical reactions
and nature’s wonders.

It is important to know that Baltic Amber is found in solid formula,
as it is a hard stone. Its hardness measures approximately 2.0 to 2.5
on the Mohs scale, with a density varying from 0.96 to 1.096 g/cm3.
By far the most fascinating fact about Baltic amber is that this stone
is still alive, due to its negative electrifying and a continuous
internal metamorphosis.

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Amber Properties

Amber is a fascinating semi-precious stone used in jewelry making,
treatments, cures, ornaments, art and many more. Amber
properties are extremely beneficial to people around the world, this
being the main reason why people want to make the best of it.

Amber is warm to the touch and when held in the hands it gives out
a relaxing faint scent of tree resin. It is also the only fossilized resin
that contains up to eight per cent succinic acid, commonly known as
amber acid. This acid is practically a multi-purpose substance very
efficient when used in a therapeutic manner. The majority of this
substance is located in the amber cortex and in its surface layers.
Amber properties also include color variety. Amber can be found in
various colors such as yellowish-brown, blue, green, red, black,
white or clear. Some of these colors are very rare, while others are

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very common. The color of each amber stone also decides the
stone’s price and value.
Other physical amber properties include the fact that it sinks in
fresh clear water but floats on the surface of salt water, making it
very easy to determine if the amber gemstone is fake or real. In
general, amber has a density oscillating between 0.96g/cm3 and
1.096g/cm3.

When it interacts with fire, amber burns and generates a pleasant
resinous smell and an aromatic smoke used as incense in Christian
churches. Plinus once said that “amber shavings immersed in olive
oil burn lighter and longer than linen fiber” and we can definitely
agree with him on that.
Other amber properties include the fact that amber electrifies
negatively, meaning it is “alive”, as its inner transformations are still
active and in a continuous metamorphosis. It also has a hardness
measuring between 2.0 and 2.5 on the Mohs scale.

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Amber has been used as an antibiotic since ancient times, when it
would heal cuts and ease the pain of wounds Later on, modern
medicine would use this fossilized resin in order to develop cut
healing balms, wound dressing plasters and others. Today, it is used
in the composition of other treatments and in aromatherapies.

Amber properties are the reason why amber is so useful and
wonderful, and why humanity has managed to make the best of it
by using it in different ways to ease our lives and make them more
beautiful.
Formation of Amber
The formation of amber began millions of years ago, involving
nature’s elements and climate changes. Back in prehistoric times, in
a geographical zone known as Northern Europe today, sudden

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subtropical climate changes formed the perfect environment for
the growing of conifers. Baltic amber originates from the tree resin
of these conifers.

When the ice ages struck, Baltic amber was transported in the
process of bed deposits formation, mainly because amber is light
and weighs little. Many of today’s amber stones actually relocated
quite a lot during these natural environmental changes. It is
important to know that amber was formed around 50 million years
ago from coniferous trees, known as Pinites Succinitera in scientific
works.
During the Palaegone period, south-western valleys originating
from the Fenoskandivanian continent were the homes of many
trees and coniferous forests. The ambient temperature grew
warmer, generating high amounts of moisture, high air
temperatures and over-secretion of tree resin, all due to changes in

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the climatic conditions, sea transgression and the influence of the
Gulf Stream. Also during these extremely warm periods, forests
were supplanted by tropical leaf trees, suitable to this warm
climate. We know that the tree resin went into various stages of
transformation before becoming amber. These stages include the
polymerization, the oxidation, the isomerization, the fermentation
and the ripening process in alkaline soil originating from the
Sambian peninsula.

Volatile terpenes evaporated from the secreted tree resin, resulting
in a quick hardening process. In time floods and rains washed away
the hardened tree resin along with forest soils into river streams
and seas. There, the tree resin became “blue soil”, which is
deposited glauconitic sea sand sediment. Amber was born below
the sea surface in a soil formation known as “blue earth” and
extracted by humans with the help of mining techniques. Of course,

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“blue earth” is but a generic name, as the formation actually has a
greenish color generated by the amount of glauconite. Glauconite is
a geologically marker clay, found only in saline marine climate,
formed under anaerobic non-oxygenic conditions. Without any
doubt, the tree resin was affected by physical and chemical factors
and climate changes on a time span of millions of years. The climate
changes altered the land and sea’s maps, so amber was influenced
many times by sea actions, deposits of sediments and geographical
relocation.
Today, the largest amounts of extracted Baltic amber deposits are
found in the Samland Peninsula, the home of an ancient forest, and
also a 400 square mile area situated near the Baltic Sea. The world’s
largest amber deposits reside in the Peninsula of Sambia, in
Kaliningrad, Russia, where blue soil is located 25-40 meters below
ground level.

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The Origin of Amber’s Name
Baltic amber is a fossilized coniferous tree resin that contains high
values of succinic acid – up to 8%. Succinate gives Baltic amber the
status of being one of the world’s finest amber gems, because of
the other 100 fossil resins, none contains more than 3% succinic
acid. However, some of them can be worked as amber.
Amber is found underwater or underground in natural deformed
forms such as stalactites, drops, fillings in the crevices of resinous
trees. The revealing forms of internal natural casts of amber show
the proof of prehistoric trees of unimaginable sizes. Some amber
pieces weigh 2 to 3 kg, while the biggest known amber piece weighs
9.75 kg. Due to climate changes, amber can be found in different
shapes and sizes from boulders to rounded grains.

Natural weathering adds more beauty to the amber stone,
compared to the pieces found underwater or underground. That is

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