TO THE PROBLEM OF THE GENESIS OF AMBER

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis and criticism of the bitumen-brown coal hypothesis of the origin of amber. Common views on the genesis of amber and views of the authors of the bitumen-brown coal hypothesis are reviewed. According to this hypothesis, amber is formed from brown coal bitumen, the source of which are resin bodies, which in turn freed up during the erosion of huge areas of bituminous brown coal. To refute these views, the following is stated. Natural bitumen is a natural organic compound with a primary hydrocarbon base. Coal bitumen is a mixture of waxes and resins, which are extracted from the coal with organic solvents. Bitumen resins are retained in the coal in a dispersed state. Resin bodies can not be a source of bitumen since they are chemically inert. In the brown coal of the Dnieper Basin they are represented by resinites, the content of which in coal usually does not exceed a few percent. In addition, the resin, which underwent changes in the conditions of the regenerative environment of the swamp, could not acquire the properties of succinite. The opinion about the erosion of large volumes of coal in the Dnieper basin is also erroneous and refuted by previous studies. To compare the nature and conditions of sedimentation of fossil resins and resins extracted from brown coal bitumen the van Krevelen diagram of the atomic ratios of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen was used. It is demonstrated that they occupy different areas on the diagram, which is an indication of a different nature and different conditions for their sedimentation.