UV and Origins

A simple UV torch is a very useful tool for examining amber. It can be used firstly as a diagnostic tool to helps verify the type of amber. UV on amber causes a clearly visible fluorescence which can be of various colors of different shades. Understanding the various colors helps one understand the origin of the amber. Most ambers exhibit various tones of blue with Indonesian and Dominican ambers giving the strongest reactions. The extreme blue of those ambers is often atrributed to ancient forest fires that affected the hydrocarbons in the amber in a way that enables this stonger blue reaction. When examing Burmite amber from Myanmar we will notice that the amber from the Hti Lin mines reacts with a green color fluorescence. Khamti and Hukawng ambers both fluoresce blue under UV light but they are different blues so the method is still useful. The various mining areas in Hukawng valley also exhibit different blues and indeed amber from one pit may too show differing reactions which often seems to dependent on the type of inclusions in the amber. In rare instances natural amber that fluoresces pink is also found in Hukawng.

UV and flow lines

Fluorescence often makes the flow lines within the amber much clearer and easier to see, UV lights can also be used to help image flow line patterns in amber. These flow lines help us understand things like the speed of the amber, the viscosity of the amber, the direction of the amber low and the type of flow.

UV and inclusions

Some types of inclusion are much easier to see under UV light for example some inclusions may be very transparent but the use of UV light can often help to make them easier to see.

UV and amber hunting

The UV light with a wavelength of 365nm in a cheap torch is also very useful for amber hunters especially at night. When walking on the beach for example shining an amber light will make it very easy to spot the amber due to the fluorescence.

UV and copal

Copal has either no reaction or a very weak reaction to UV light and is a simple non-destructive method for separating amber from copal. Note that hot pin tests salt water floating tests are gimmicks and do not mean that much.

UV and fakes

Many people may have seem insects in resin being sold and in general they are easy to spot. A UV torch is a good way to test. Note that some fakers are now mixing amber powder with resin to recreate the fluorescence but the UV light still helps us see that it is a different hue and effect and of course the flow lines are not natural. Some fakers are also taking insects in resin then sandwiching them with real amber as doublets or triplets. By moving a UV torch from side to side whilst examining a piece it is easy to spot these fakes.

UV and Hukawng amber types

In the January 2023 Open Source research paper "Spectral Characteristics of Unique Species of Burmese Amber" by Zhaotong Shi it is noted that luminescence characteristics in the blue-violet region can be used to distinguish black-tea amber from brownish-red amber, golden amber, golden-blue amber, green-tea amber, green amber and the highly coveted ‘chameleon’ amber. The luminescence characteristics in the red region could be used to distinguish black-tea amber from blood-tea amber and green-tea amber in this situation, where both are similar in appearance to black-tea amber on the white background and are difficult to distinguish. The use of this method can help to address the disorder phenomena in the market dictating that ordinary amber species have been bought as black-tea amber. Besides, it was found that tea amber and brownish-red amber possessed luminescence centers in the red region. However, green-tea amber only possessed one luminescence center (650 nm), while black-tea amber and brownish-red amber possessed two (625 and 650 nm). Moreover, the luminescence peak intensity of the black-tea amber at 650 nm was far higher than those of green-tea amber and brownish-red amber. It can be said that this is related to the pink fluorescence of the surface of the tea amber. Furthermore, the pink fluorescence of the black-tea amber was found to be more prominent than that of the green-tea amber. Compared with the use of the 3D fluorescence spectra, testing using the photoluminescence spectra effectively differentiated black-tea amber from other amber species (e.g., blood-tea and green-tea amber).