Alaska amber: a rare treasure from the ancient forests of Alaska.

• Author: Wheeler, Bob

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Fossil records of the northern portion of Alaska provide clear evidence that forests have occupied this land and retreated repeatedly over the past 130 million years. The species composition of these forests has changed over time as climate and the geology of the area changed. However, the early Cretaceous Alaska forests of 130 million to 100 million years ago were dominated by mixtures of both conifers (pine, spruce and redwood species) and deciduous trees (ash, poplars, ginko and fig). Alaska amber deposits primarily come from the conifers in those ancient forests. Due to its age, Cretaceous amber is considered to be quite old compared to most other amber deposits in the world, such as the famous Baltic amber, which is a mere 30 million to 40 million years old.

Cretaceous Alaska amber represents an important geological period that included the end of the Age of Reptiles, which was a time of great changes in plant and animal life, a time when coal was formed, and an important period in the evolutionary development of insects. Unfortunately, very few insects have been found in this amber.

AMBER ON NORTH SLOPE

Based on reports from the 1950s of amber being discovered in various locations on the North Slope, the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Cooperative Extension Service received a small grant in 2002 to pursue collection and evaluation of Alaska amber to identify what tree species produced it and its potential for crafting quality jewelry. We were interested in determining whether Alaska amber provided an opportunity to create unique, high-end value amber jewelry based not only on the diversity of the amber material available, but also to market this jewelry as Alaska Cretaceous amber that would make it unique in the world of amber.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Amber was reportedly found in the Yukon River Delta, near coal deposits on the Fox Islands, in Amber Bay, in the mountains near Unalaska, near Ninuluk Bluff on the Colville river, along the Ikpikpuk and Oumalik rivers, along Maybe Creek, on the beach at Smith Bay, and in the Kuk Lagoon drainages on the Arctic Slope. The survey concluded that amber was widespread and commonly found in association with coal and carbonaceous shale deposits. Amber was typically found on exposed cutbanks along river systems and commonly found on the ground surface downslope from coal outcroppings.

Knowing that coal layers were...