Editing Amber (section)

==Extraction and processing==

=== Distribution and mining ===
[[File:Baltic-amber-deposit-Yantarny.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Open cast]] amber mine "Primorskoje" in Jantarny, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia]]

[[File:Amber miners2.jpg|thumb|Extracting Baltic amber from Holocene deposits, Gdańsk, Poland]]Amber is globally distributed in or around all continents,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Klages |first1=Johann P. |last2=Gerschel |first2=Henny |last3=Salzmann |first3=Ulrich |last4=Nehrke |first4=Gernot |last5=Müller |first5=Juliane |last6=Hillenbrand |first6=Claus-Dieter |last7=Bohaty |first7=Steven M. |last8=Bickert |first8=Torsten |date=2024-11-12 |title=First discovery of Antarctic amber |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/first-discovery-of-antarctic-amber/700244C13B3972F0048EAC029E34263E |journal=Antarctic Science |volume=36 |issue=5 |language=en |pages=439–440 |doi=10.1017/S0954102024000208 |bibcode=2024AntSc..36..439K |issn=0954-1020}}</ref> mainly in rocks of [[Cretaceous]] age or younger. Historically, the coast west of [[Königsberg]] in [[Prussia (region)|Prussia]] was the world's leading source of amber. The first mentions of amber deposits there date back to the 12th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tantsura |first=Michael |date=2016-07-27 |title=The History of Russian Amber, Part 1: The Beginning |url=https://leta.st/en/blog/2016/07/history-of-russian-amber-1/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315013751/https://leta.st/blog/2016/07/history-of-Russian-amber-1/ |archive-date=2018-03-15 |access-date= |website=Leta |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Juodkrantė#History|Juodkrantė]] in [[Lithuania]] was established in the mid-19th century as a mining town of amber. About 90% of the world's extractable amber is still located in that area, which was transferred to the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] of the [[USSR]] in 1946, becoming the [[Kaliningrad Oblast]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/ted/amber.htm|publisher =  Gurukul.ucc.american.edu|title = Amber Trade and the Environment in the Kaliningrad Oblast|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706182814/http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/ted/amber.htm |archive-date=6 July 2012 }}</ref>

Pieces of amber torn from the seafloor are cast up by the waves and collected by hand, dredging, or diving. Elsewhere, amber is mined, both in open works and underground galleries. Then nodules of ''blue earth'' have to be removed and an opaque crust must be cleaned off, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water. Erosion removes this crust from sea-worn amber.{{sfn|Rudler|1911|p=793}} [[Dominican amber]] is mined through [[bell pit]]ting, which is dangerous because of the risk of tunnel collapse.<ref>Wichard, Wilfred and Weitschat, Wolfgang (2004) Im Bernsteinwald. – Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim, {{ISBN|3-8067-2551-9}}</ref>

An important source of amber is [[Kachin State]] in northern [[Myanmar]], which has been a major source of amber in China for at least 1,800 years. Contemporary mining of this deposit has attracted attention for unsafe working conditions and its role in funding [[Internal conflict in Myanmar|internal conflict in the country]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hunt|first=Katie|date=20 September 2020|title='Blood amber' may be a portal into dinosaur times, but the fossils are an ethical minefield for palaeontologists|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/19/world/blood-amber-myanmar-fossils-scn/index.html|access-date=2020-09-20|website=CNN}}</ref> Amber from the [[Rivne Oblast]] of Ukraine, referred to as [[Rivne amber]], is mined illegally by organised crime groups, who deforest the surrounding areas and pump water into the sediments to extract the amber, causing severe environmental deterioration.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-01-31|title=The Dramatic Impact of Illegal Amber Mining in Ukraine's Wild West|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/01/illegal-amber-mining-ukraine/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001204244/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/01/illegal-amber-mining-ukraine/|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 October 2019|access-date=2020-09-22|website=National Geographic News|language=en}}</ref>

===Treatment===
The Vienna amber factories, which use pale amber to manufacture pipes and other smoking tools, turn it on a [[lathe]] and polish it with whitening and water or with [[rotten stone]] and oil. The final luster is given by polishing with flannel.{{sfn|Rudler|1911|p=793}}

When gradually heated in an oil bath, amber "becomes soft and flexible. Two pieces of amber may be united by smearing the surfaces with linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together while hot. Cloudy amber may be clarified in an oil bath, as the oil fills the numerous pores that cause the turbidity. Small fragments, formerly thrown away or used only for varnish are now used on a large scale in the formation of "ambroid" or "pressed amber".{{sfn|Rudler|1911|p=793}} The pieces are carefully heated with exclusion of air and then compressed into a uniform mass by intense hydraulic pressure, the softened amber being forced through holes in a metal plate. The product is extensively used for the production of cheap jewelry and articles for smoking. This pressed amber yields brilliant interference colors in polarized light."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Project Gutenberg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oil4DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT2383 |title=The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia |date = January 2021|publisher=Prabhat Prakashan}}</ref>

Amber has often been imitated by other resins like [[copal]] and [[kauri gum]], as well as by [[celluloid]] and even glass. Baltic amber is sometimes colored artificially but also called "true amber".{{sfn|Rudler|1911|p=793}}