Durglessit

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Durglessit natural form; Size 48 mm; Collection: Natural History Museum Mauritianum Altenburg.
Durglessit natural form rubble sanded; Size: 34mm; Collection: Natural History Museum Mauritianum Altenburg.

Durglessite 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 is based on its similarity to the amber type glessite and its markedly greater hardness, derived from the Latin word durus for "hard". Durglessite is one of the rarer types of amber, only 30 pieces have been found so far.

According to its spheroidal structure and infrared spectrum, Durglessit belongs to the Glessit group. The hardness is similar to that of Succinit, it is significantly harder than Glessit. The basic mass is spherical and therefore slightly cloudy. Its color is reddish-yellow-gray with a greenish tinge. The light gray and spherical insets are very different in size and often with blurred edges. The Einsprenglinge are softer than the base. The dark reddish-brown to black-brown weathering bark is usually only thin and firmly adhering, the outer area is grainy of sugar. As can be seen in the picture above, the initial resin was more viscous or it solidified more quickly than that of the Glessit.

Some authors have assumed that the Durglessit is only a "variant" of the Glessit, but that there is no valid reason for this assumption.

The plant of origin of Durglessit 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. ^ Günter Krumbiegel: Glessit, a tertiary resin from Bedecktsamern . In: Fossilien , Volume 10, Issue 2, Korb 1993, pages 83-90
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ 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 : Durglessite from Bitterfeld  - Collection of images, videos and audio files