The NaturAmber Guide to Baltic Amber
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Welcome to the NaturAmber Education Center, your comprehensive resource for understanding the remarkable natural material at the heart of our jewelry. From its ancient origins to its modern wellness applications, this guide will help you appreciate the unique qualities that make Baltic amber one of nature's most extraordinary treasures.
What Is Amber?
Nature's Time Capsule
Amber is not a stone or crystal, but rather fossilized tree resin that has hardened over millions of years. This organic gem began as sticky sap that oozed from ancient pine forests around 44 million years ago during the Eocene epoch. As this resin dripped down tree trunks or collected in puddles, it often trapped small insects, plant matter, and air bubbles—preserving these ancient specimens in perfect detail for millions of years.
Over time, through a process called polymerization, the resin hardened and fossilized into the warm, golden material we know as amber. This transformation required specific geological conditions including pressure, heat, and time—lots of time. The result is a natural material that connects us directly to Earth's ancient past.
Baltic Amber: The Gold Standard
While amber is found in various locations worldwide, Baltic amber (also known as succinite) is considered the finest and most valuable variety. Formed from the now-extinct Pinus succinifera pine trees, Baltic amber is distinguished by its high concentration of succinic acid—the compound responsible for many of amber's therapeutic properties.
The Baltic region—encompassing present-day Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia, and parts of Germany and Scandinavia—contains the world's largest known deposit of amber. These deposits formed when ancient resin washed into rivers and was carried to the Baltic Sea, where it eventually settled in sedimentary layers known as "blue earth."
Baltic amber ranges in age from 35 to 50 million years old, making it one of the most ancient natural materials used in jewelry and wellness applications.