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Amber or not?


MacHoffman22

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I have been finding a lot of these recently. They are waxy to the touch and come in a variety of pale white to orange tinted. Are these pieces of amber or are they some other kind of mineral? Thanks!

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Where are they from?

 

Do a hardness test. Does a steel needle or knife blade scratch them? I bet not which suggests that they might be a form of quartz.

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My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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South Dakota. I find a lot of petrified wood around the same area that I find these so it just made me wonder. Didn't think to do a hardness test but the knife did not scratch it so I'm assuming you're right. Although, being that it's probably a form of quartz, what would cause these unique ridges in the mineral?

1607545993587980289812.jpg

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7 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Where are they from?

 

Do a hardness test. Does a steel needle or knife blade scratch them? I bet not which suggests that they might be a form of quartz.

Good recommendation, this is easy to do.  To take it one step further, you could measure the specific gravity of the specimens.  The thread below shows how to do it and includes a table of specific gravities for different materials. Amber has a specific gravity of only 1.08, while quartz is 2.65. 
 

 

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24 minutes ago, MacHoffman22 said:

South Dakota. I find a lot of petrified wood around the same area that I find these so it just made me wonder. Didn't think to do a hardness test but the knife did not scratch it so I'm assuming you're right. Although, being that it's probably a form of quartz, what would cause these unique ridges in the mineral?

1607545993587980289812.jpg

I believe microcrystalline quartz can show conchoidal fractures like those.  They look like they have been smoothed out a bit, possibly by being tumbled in a river or the ocean.

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24 minutes ago, MacHoffman22 said:

1607545993587980289812.jpg

This chalcedony probably filled a void (volcanic?) that was partially filled with a botryoidal mineral (more chalcedony?). The scalloped areas are an imprint of existing minerals in the void.

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My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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