Thumbprints - Amber Necklace
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	Amber is a time hardened resin which formed from pitch. This pitch exuded from certain species of Pine trees known as Pinnus Succinifera. This happened a long time ago during the Oligocene times before the great Ice Age over 30 million years ago. It is composed of a complex mixture of several resins, acids and oil. The empirical formula is C10H16O, but also contains a trace of hydrogen sulphide (H2S). Amber is a transparent or translucent brownish or yellowish color, but it can also be reddish or whitish. Amber is a soft mineral and can be scratched easily. Amber can be melted at about 250 to 300 degrees centigrade. Amber can flouresce under an ultraviolet light. As amber is mostly carbon and hydrogen, which do not show up on the XRF spectrum, the spectrum will be very noisy and the only elements that will show up will be trace elements. The spectrum shown shows mostly noise and some trace of Iron, zinc, copper, nickel and silicon. All these elements are present in only the smallest amounts and show up only because there is nothing else to detect. Amber can be softened and pressed together to make larger blocks. One interesting fact about amber is that small insects were sometimes trapped in the amber when it was still soft pitch at the time when it exuded from the trees. This gives us a glimpse of early life forms. Other inclusions in amber are moss, lichens and pine needles. Usually, if an insect is trapped in amber it will be damaged from its death struggle. Some amber is found along the shores of the Baltic Sea in Lithuania or dug up in mines. Red amber can be found in Burma (Myanmar) and is quite hard and dense. Amber can also be found in Transylvania, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Canada and in the United States in California, North and South Carolina, Arkansas, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Wyoming, and Colorado.