Posted
on February 27, 2014
It's
pretty common for nations to have more than one national holiday,
more than one independence day, even. That's because many nations
unite with other nations, then split apart, are conquered, then win
back their independence, and so forth and so on, over the centuries
changing their names and borders and allegiances.
The
Dominican Republic has two independence days. The Caribbean nation
celebrates its 1844 independence from Haiti today and its 1865
independence from Spain in August.
Learn
more about the Dominican Republic in this and this other
earlier post. Today I'm going to focus on the designated gem of this
country: amber.
The
Dominican Republic has at least two small museums and shops dedicated
to amber (or ambar in Spanish). This gemstone isn't made up of
a single element, like diamonds, nor a complex mineral, like rubies.
Instead, amber is fossilized plant resin. It glows a beautiful gold
color, and we can sometimes see, encased in amber, insects that have
died in the resin when it was still soft and sticky!
You
might be thinking that amber is made from the sugary sap that travels
up and down a tree's trunk, acting in similar ways to our blood—but
resin is not the same thing as sap! Resin is the semi-solid stuff
that is secreted by many plants, especially pine trees and other
conifers.
Some
scientists say that it is basically a waste product—stuff that the
plant doesn't really need—but resin can help the plant that
secretes it because plant-eating creatures (from deer to beetles)
either don't like the sticky stuff or get trapped within it. Also,
resin can quickly seal over a wound and prevent fungi or other agents
of disease getting access to the plant's insides. It can even lower
the amount of water lost by the plant's tissues.
Since
most amber ranges from pale yellow to orange, it is surprising to
find out that some amber is green or even blue! This is the case
for some amber found in the Dominican Republic. According to the
website Caribbean Green Amber,
Dominican amber is probably made from an ancient species similar to
the modern algarrobo, pictured here, about 20 to 40 million
years ago. Dominican blue amber fluoresces, and in direct sunlight scatters reflected light back to our eyes, making it appear blue. 
 |
| These two photos (above and below) show the exact same chunk of blue amber. The photo above shows it in direct sunlight; the photo below shows it backlit. |
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