Baltic amber or succinite is amber from the Baltic region, home of its largest known deposits. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial.[why?] It has been estimated that this forested region provided the resin for more than 100,000 tons of amber.[1] Today, more than 90% of the world's amber comes from Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. It is a major source of income for the region; the local Kaliningrad Amber Combine extracted 250 tonnes of it in 2014[2] and 400 tonnes in 2015.[3]
Baltic amber formerly included amber from the Bitterfeld brown coal mines in Saxony (Eastern Germany). Bitterfeld amber was previously believed to be only 20–22 million years old (Miocene), but a comparison of the animal inclusions in 2003 suggested that it was possibly Baltic amber that was redeposited in a Miocene deposit.[4] Further study of insect taxa in the ambers has shown Bitterfeld amber to be from the same forest as the Baltic amber forest, but separately deposited from a more southerly section, in a similar manner as Ukrainian Rovno amber.[5] Other sources of Baltic amber have been listed as coming from Poland and Russia.
Because Baltic amber contains from 3 to 8% succinic acid, it is also termed succinite.