Amber Listserv / green

[ADAM SPIEGEL]

Derek,
   
  Yes, because as you know geologists often use polarized light filters when looking at slabbed minerals in order to help determine the minerals' compositions.
   
  Whether the Italian scientists are correct that organic hydrocarbons exist inside the amber does not really explain the color.  They need to show how light shining on the piece excites the molecules inside the amber in that area of the visible light spectrum.  Without reading the paper, I dont know if they worked on that.
   
  The other thing is that amber itself is an aromatic hydrocarbon.  Defining the specific hydrocarbons is interesting, as they have done, but it is far from the whole story.
   
  Adam

Derek <stoneage at vermontel.net> wrote:
      It may well have been polarized. 
   
  Derek
    ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: ADAM SPIEGEL 
  To: Derek 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:46 AM
  Subject: Re: Amber Listserv / green
  

Possibly polarized light?

Derek <stoneage at vermontel.net> wrote:           I wrote an small article years ago for Lapidary Journal about the color in this piece of blue/green Dominican. 
   
  I worked in conjunction with a professor from Darmouth College who specialized in earth science, specifically determining the age and compositions of the oldest rock formations. He'd never even looked at a piece of amber before and I believe that may have been helpful because we weren't limited to preconceived ideas.  
   
  Unfortunately I don't recall the magnification or the kind of light that finally ended up showing us something, but we found what he an several others in the department identified as chlorite crystals in the green that we believe lent it the green hue. They were evenly dispersed through the sample as you can see from the photo of the disposition, Lapjournal 2 , though not the color which did not reproduce well in this photo. It is, though, a very high resolution photo and you can blow it up to see the crystals and a glimpse of the color. 
   
  The second photo lapjournal6 shows the color of the original piece of amber which weighs, if I recall, 20 ounces and had these strange wavy flow lines.  It was actually the flow lines which started my enquiry because I wanted to try and figure out what had caused them. We never got close to figuring that out. But I think maybe we got the cause of the green right in that piece anyway. 
   
  The third photo also shows a blue flake that seemed to be organic rather than mineral and may account for the blueness in the piece.  We found several of those but never identified what they were. Lapjournal 7, if I recall correctly, is that same piece in full spectrum light. 
   
  I still have this piece of amber by the way as well as the thin slice slide that was photographed.  
   
  I was going to do some more research on this but never got around to it. But what I did do raised a lot of interesting questions. 
   
  Derek Levin 
  www.gemmaker.com
    ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: The Edgars 
  To: amber at ambericawest.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 11:22 PM
  Subject: Amber Listserv / green
  

  some Chiapas is truly green and not a effect caused by light but I don't know what makes it green
  and it is extremely rare
   
   
  w
    
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