What is amber?

Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty many thousand years ago by human. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite (wikipedia).

The most popular amber is the Baltic amber, Dominican amber and Mexican amber. Most are suitable for jewelry and carvings. There are more than hundreds of variety and localities of amber being found recently. The most recent finding is Turkish amber-2010 and Blue amber-2011 from various Indonesian localities.

Malaysia also have amber. The biggest amber in the world was found in Merit-Pila coal mine, Sarawak, year 1991 with the size 3.5m x 1.5m. The 1991 discovery Sarawak amber from Merit-Pila coal mine was dated at Miocene, 15-17 million years old. September 2011, I received several chunks of newly discovered Sarawak amber from Tukau formation, Miri, Sarawak. It is a Pliocene age amber which is only about 5 million years old fossil resin.