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Dominican Republic > Dominican souvenirs & specialities > Dominican Amber
Dominican Amber
Amber is a hardened tree resin, consisting of compounds of terpenes, alcohols, and esters. There are three places in the world, where amber is found in large quantities: in Eastern Europe (Baltic Sea), in Mexico and in the Dominican Republic.
While Baltic amber formed from hardened resin of the pine tree, Pinus Succinifera, amber from the Dominican Republic originated from an extinct species of broad-leaved tropical trees Hymenaea of the legume family, whose closest relative is still found in East Africa.
Dominican amber is 90 % more transparent than amber from elsewhere. Amber lovers and collectors value Dominican amber for the diversity of inclusions it contains. The occurrence of insects in amber from the Dominican Republic is about 10 times higher than in Baltic amber.
Inclusions like scorpions, lizards and frogs can make a piece of amber a real treasure. Probably only 30 to 40 scorpions, 10 to 20 lizards and 8 or 9 frogs have been found worldwide. A piece of Dominican amber was discovered in 1997 and valued at over 50,000 US$, because it contained a small frog, preserved in a magnificent way.
Another thing that makes Dominican amber so different from the amber from other places is that it occurs in several colors, from a light yellow to a deep red, and even a blue. Blue amber is only found in the Dominican Republic. It is not fully understood what causes this rare blue color in amber. There are several theories:
One theory links the color in Dominican blue amber to the occurrence of volcanic ash or dust which was present when the resin was first pressed out from hymenaea protera millions of years ago.
Another suggests that due to volcanic activity hot lava must have flown over those areas where regular amber was buried under ground. Due to the extreme heat, the amber changed its color first to green and then to blue. Experiments have shown that a changes of colour occur when normal amber is heated up. While the secret of Dominican blue amber is not revealed, one thing is sure: it is beautiful and it is extremely rare.