FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

We have a great scoop!. A person who is scientifically researching new amber recently discovered in Cantabria, in the north of Spain, passed to me as a scoop the text below in order to share it with Forum visitors. He promised also to add here more details about it in the future, as the research progesses. In the meantime, if someone wishes to get more information about this find, they can do it on the Spanish forum: https://www.foro-minerales.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=949 (written in Spanish)

I also added to the text some photos. The photos were supplied by "Paco de Cantabria".
Thanks to both for their contributions to make public this so important scientific discovery.

Here is the text:

An important find of amber was made in the old "La Florida" Mine worked in the past for lead and zinc, in the El Soplao-Rabago area, in Cantabria, Spain, during the scientific research in the "El Soplao" cave and other formations exposed during the active mining period.
The scientific importance of the amber surpass the quality of the specimens recovered: despite of the age of the amber (140-145 MY), it contains highly preserved biomarkers that give important information about the paleoflora and climate changes in the lower Cretaceous epoch. Moreover, the amber is accompanied by abundant higher plant macrofossils (Coniferales) and insects entrapped in the fossil resin.
A particular feature of this Cantabrian amber find is the occurrence of blue stains and veins in a very strong white-blue fluorescence. The origin of the blue stains and fluorescence is under study, but appears to be different from Dominican blue amber.