Weird discovery in petrified wood

[jnicholes]

Today, something really strange happened. I happen to be carrying a piece of petrified wood, when the wood slipped out of my hands and dropped and broke. When I looked at the pieces, picking them up, I found one piece that had a large crystal structure. I wasn’t sure what it was.

 

I decided to do a test to see if it was Amber. I’m pretty sure that Amber floats when put in water, but I’m not sure. I could be wrong.

 

To my surprise, a lot of stuff was floating in my bowl of water. After looking at the pieces of the crystal structure under magnifier, I think I discovered that I have found Amber in my petrified wood fossil. It has the color, and it has some of the properties. It floats in water.

 

I am not sure if it’s Amber or something else, but I will attach pictures later, as the file sizes are too big and I need to adjust them.

 

 I thought it would catch everyone’s interest.

 

Jared

 

 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Can't wait to see them !

 

Coco

[Top Trilo]

Another test you can do is a UV flashlight. Amber is flourescent

[jnicholes]

Finally got the files the right size.

 

Ill do the UV light test as soon as I find a UV flashlight.

[Al Dente]

4 hours ago, jnicholes said:

I’m pretty sure that Amber floats when put in water, but I’m not sure.

It won’t float in water unless you increase the density of the water by adding a lot of salt.

[DPS Ammonite]

Small pieces of many rocks might float on water due to surface tension. They are probably not amber because they do not float on fresh water. Take some of the pieces that float and give us their relative hardness. Will the pieces scratch glass? Will calcite scratch them? Will acid make them fizz?

Edited January 13, 2021 by DPS Ammonite

[jnicholes]

2 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Small pieces of many rocks might float on water due to surface tension. Take some of the pieces that float and give us their relative hardness. Will the pieces scratch glass? Will calcite scratch them? Will acid make them fizz?

I’m not sure if I can test that, the pieces are so small, small enough to fit inside my fingerprint. The pictures were taken under a high power magnifier.

 

i’ll see what I can do, though.

[FossilDAWG]

1 hour ago, Al Dente said:

It won’t float in water unless you increase the density of the water by adding a lot of salt.

There is (or used to be) a Cretaceous amber deposit on a particular beach on Cedar Lake in Manitoba.  The Saskatchewan River eroded through Cretaceous deposits and washed out the amber and carried it to the lake, where it would float on the surface and be pushed by the prevailing winds to a particular part of the shore where over centuries it accumulated (along with bits of wood and such) in a deposit several inches deep.  At some point a large sample was collected for the American Museum of Natural History.  A number of papers were published on the insect fauna preserved in the amber.  I recall that a lot of amber was also collected and melted to seal canoes and such.  Some years ago the outlet from the lake was dammed raising the water level and the remaining amber was washed out.  Amber may still be washing into the lake but it accumulates so slowly no new amber beach has been found.

 

I mention this because it is evidence that amber, at least from that source, definitely does float on fresh water.

 

Don

 

[daves64]

The only actual amber I know of that can float in regular water is a variety called "foam". It's filled with literally thousands (if not more depending on piece size) of air bubbles, making it an almost solid white in most areas. I actually have a small piece & it does indeed float in regular tap water. But I don't think this is that. Most likely, this is petrified sap (life blood) from the inner part of the tree.

[jnicholes]

1 minute ago, daves64 said:

The only actual amber I know of that can float in regular water is a variety called "foam". It's filled with literally thousands (if not more depending on piece size) of air bubbles, making it an almost solid white in most areas. I actually have a small piece & it does indeed float in regular tap water. But I don't think this is that. Most likely, this is petrified sap (life blood) from the inner part of the tree.

Question. Isn’t petrified sap amber, or am I mistaken?

[daves64]

Amber is classified as being petrified tree resin, not sap as far as I know. Sap being the nutrient carrying fluid, with resin being the "first aid" for damage to the tree itself, sort of like a scab.

[jnicholes]

Thanks for that info. I learned something new.

[Al Dente]

7 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

There is (or used to be) a Cretaceous amber deposit on a particular beach on Cedar Lake in Manitoba.  The Saskatchewan River eroded through Cretaceous deposits and washed out the amber and carried it to the lake, where it would float on the surface and be pushed by the prevailing winds to a particular part of the shore where over centuries it accumulated (along with bits of wood and such) in a deposit several inches deep.  At some point a large sample was collected for the American Museum of Natural History.  A number of papers were published on the insect fauna preserved in the amber.  I recall that a lot of amber was also collected and melted to seal canoes and such.  Some years ago the outlet from the lake was dammed raising the water level and the remaining amber was washed out.  Amber may still be washing into the lake but it accumulates so slowly no new amber beach has been found.

 

I mention this because it is evidence that amber, at least from that source, definitely does float on fresh water.

 

Don

 

I had never heard of this so I looked it up. This publication on the amber would suggest it is denser than water, but still less dense than other amber.