Bitterfeldite

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Bitterfeldite fluidal, rubble (fragments) sanded, partially with weathering bark; Size 37 mm; Collection: Natural History Museum Mauritianum Altenburg.
Bitterfeldite fluidal, section of the picture above; Size (image width): 18 mm; Collection: Natural History Museum Mauritianum Altenburg.

Bitterfeldite is a type of amber that was found in the Goitsche opencast mine near Bitterfeld . The name given when this fossil resin was first described in 1986 goes back to this . The bitterfeldite is so far only known from the Bitterfeld site, more than 150 pieces have been recovered.

Bitterfeldit belongs to the spheroidal structure, and the infrared spectrum to Glessit group. It is very brittle and has a weak aromatic odor. The break is shell-like, the break surfaces have a fat, shiny matt finish. The producer plant has formed two resin forms that always appear together. Most of the pieces show a flow structure in which irregularly curved shear bodies are separated by a deep dark brown, relatively clear resin. The clear resin is slightly cloudy and has a spherical structure (grain size less than 0.01 mm). The second resin is opaque and consists of a transparent base material and very fine-grained, opaque inserts. In the shearers as well as in pieces with weak or no flowing texture, the sprinkles are distributed in a cloudy, nebulous manner. This shear body and the appearance of curdled milk are the noticeable features of Bitterfeldit.

The independence of bitterfeldite from glessite, which some authors doubted without justification, is also proven by several pieces in which brownish black glessite flowed onto previously hardened bitterfeldite, see picture gallery. In some finds, the two types of resin have merged. There was no mixing, the firm connection of the two resins speaks for their close relationship.

The plant of origin of the bitterfeldite is not yet known, it probably also belonged to the balsam tree family (Burseraceae).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roland Fuhrmann, Rolf Borsdorf: The amber types of the Lower Miocene of Bitterfeld. In: Journal for Applied Geology , Volume 32, Berlin 1986, pages 309-316, PDF .
  2. ^ Roland Fuhrmann: The bitter fields amber. In: Mauritiana , Volume 21, Altenburg 2010, ISSN  0233-173X , pages 13-58, PDF .
  3. ↑ Barbara Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, Günter Krumbiegel : Geology and history of Bitterfeld amber and other fossil resins . In: Hallesches Jahrbuch für Geoswissenschaften , Volume 14, Gotha 1989, pages 1-25.
  4. ↑ Barbara Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, Günter Krumbiegel, Norbert Vavra: Glessit, a tertiary resin from angiosperms of the Burseraceae family . In: New Yearbook for Geology and Palaeontology, Abhandlungen , Volume 187, Issue 3, Stuttgart 1993, pages 299-324.
  5. ↑ Günter Krumbiegel, Barbara Kosmowska-Ceranowicz: Bitterfeld amber types and variants compared to other deposits (status of the investigations 2004) . In: Excursion guide and publications of the German Society for Geosciences , Issue 224, Berlin 2004, pages 47–59.

Web links

Commons : Bitterfeldite from Bitterfeld  - Collection of images, videos and audio files