Tennessee

[Mikeyray]

I have been digging this up for over a year. No one can tell Me what it is. I have them from micro to large, 150ish grams. Every piece is yellow inside. The edges have a green tint in light. Translucent and fluorescent. Best I can guess is Amber?? Please help identify. 

[Randyw]

It doesn’t appear to be amber to me…it kind of reminds me of serpentine. A fluorescent stone that can be yellow, green, etc etc….and is found in Tennessee.

while there is amber from Tennessee it is very very rare…

[Mikeyray]

It burns and doesn’t smell very good. This one here is still gooey 

[Mikeyray]

It’s also kinda fragile and shards

[Kane]

Could be a resin based waste product.

[Mahnmut]

44 minutes ago, Mikeyray said:

It burns and doesn’t smell very good. This one here is still gooey 

 

Still gooey points toward modern (synthetic) resin.

[Mikeyray]

I was thinking modern also but the way it’s coming out of the ground, hard packed virgin dirt, I just really don’t know. I’ve read and read and searched and searched for over a year and a couple weeks ago, same area, different spot, I’m finding what I think is sea sponge? So now I can’t help but think it’s amber. It may not be but that’s the best I can match from the research I’ve done. 

[Randyw]

Definitely rules out Amber.gotta be some kind of modern resin material

[val horn]

I think the white grey material looks like slag.  Have you spoken to a local geology department?

[Mikeyray]

Definitely not slag. It’s fossilized. No I haven’t. Would love to but don’t know where to go. 

[val horn]

Most state universities have geology departments. A test for amber is specific gravity. It should float on salt water,  it should not melt with hot metal.  There are chemical tests as well but they can be distructive and need expensive spectroscopy.

[Ludwigia]

12 hours ago, Mikeyray said:

Would love to but don’t know where to go. 

 

Since you've been working at this for over a year, I'm sure that you would really like to get to the bottom of this, right? The majority of my colleagues here tend to the opinion that this is modern resin material, but one is only going by photos and descriptions here, so you probably aren't 100% sure about this. I would suggest that you get in touch with a geologist at the Middle Tennessee Museum of Natural History and see if you can make an appointment for a hands on assessment of some of your finds. It's only about a 2 hour drive away from Benton county. Good luck!

[Mikeyray]

On 11/13/2024 at 11:59 PM, val horn said:

Most state universities have geology departments. A test for amber is specific gravity. It should float on salt water,  it should not melt with hot metal.  There are chemical tests as well but they can be distructive and need expensive spectroscopy.

It passes all of these tests. Also acetone doesn’t hurt it at all

[Randyw]

On 11/13/2024 at 5:23 AM, Mikeyray said:

It burns and doesn’t smell very good. This one here is still gooey 

This post of yours rules out amber entirely….

[Randyw]

Here is a real piece of amber and the same piece of amber after i heated it with a BLOWTORCH . It gave a light piney/campfire kind of scent…..

from getty.edu

Amber’s hardness varies from 2 to 3 on the Mohs scale (talc is 1 and diamond 10). This relative softness means that amber is easily worked. It has a melting-point range of 200 to 380°C, but it tends to burn rather than melt. Amber is amorphous in structure and, if broken, can produce a conchoidal, or shell-like, fracture. It is a poor conductor and thus feels warm to the touch in the cold, and cool in the heat. When friction is applied, amber becomes negatively charged and attracts lightweight particles such as pieces of straw, fluff, or dried leaves. Its ability to produce static electricity has fascinated observers from the earliest times. Amber’s magnetic property gave rise to the word electricity: amber (Greek, elektron) was used in the earliest experiments on electricity.41 Amber’s natural properties inspired myth and legend and dictated its usage.

Edited November 25 by Randyw
Clarified statement and added text

[Randyw]

Also here is a sample of amber under blacklight…