Is Blue Amber truly blue? No. It is not. And yet, it is. Confused?
We know that it is a result of fluorescence and no solid color. Ultra-violet or violet light is re-emitted as blue or green light attributed to the presence of poly-nuclear aromatic molecules. (Gemology, Cornelius S. Hurlbut, Jr., Robert C. Kammerling – see also our blog on aromatic molecules by Alec Corday)
A very rare large blue amber specimen. We sold this 24 years ago to a collector in Saudi Arabia.
Dominican blue amber is not blue when the light shines through it, but when the light shines at it. See the space blue example below, which we also placed on the Wikipedia site.
In conclusion: Blue amber is blue, but not the way you might think. Please look at the pictures below.
You see the same blue amber cabochons. When sunlight strikes the Blue Amber on a white surface the light particles pass right through and are refracted by the white surface. Result: the Blue amber looks almost like any other Dominican amber, only with a slight blue hue. But on the other picture, the light particles can’t refract off the black surface, so it is the Amber that refracts. The hydrocarbons in the Blue Amber turn the sun’s ultraviolet light into blue light particles. The result: the famous blue glow of Blue Amber. A similar reaction you will find in the green Dominican amber.
Other Dominican amber will show this refraction only in concentrated UV light, but not in natural light. All pictures have been taken with a regular digital camera in the shade of our verandah, without any artificial light.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
