In my last addition to my weekend fun series I presented a
orange, slightly translucent little "rock". It was correctly
recognised and described by EffJot as amber! Due to weathering
effects the surface of the amber is covered with cracks and
fractures and developed a surface incrustraction that has likely
been abraded by transport and subsequent re-sedimentation. The
specimen you see here is of Eocene age and was found by a friend
of mine in a small gravel pit in northern Germany close to the
Baltic Sea. I am sorry Silver Fox but what you interpret as
breccia texture is likely nothing more than the weathering
cracks and surface features of the hardening resin. There are no
visible inclusions in this specimen except some tiny air bubbles
(I wonder if it's worth examining those). The origin of amber
is, to make it short, fossilised tree resin that hardened under
exposure to air and was then deposited in sediment and re-
sedimented. The German name for amber "Bernstein" is likely
derived from the lower German wo