“Pine Island Amber”: Scientists discover world's southernmost amber in antarctica, revealing forest

For the first time, scientists have discovered amber in Antarctica, marking the southernmost amber find in the world. A team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg published a paper in the journal Antarctic Science, detailing this significant discovery. The research team was led by Dr. Johann P. Klages from the Alfred Wegener Institute and Dr. Henny Gerschel from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

The researchers named their find "Pine Island amber" after its locality in Pine Island Bay of the Amundsen Sea Embayment. The amber was discovered in a sediment core recovered during an expedition with the research icebreaker "Polarstern" in 2017. The sediment core was retrieved from nearly 1000 meters of water depth in the Amundsen Sea using the seafloor drill rig MARUM-MeBo70. The coordinates of the Pine Island amber discovery are 73.57° South, 107.09° West, marking it as the southernmost find of yellow-brown stones made from fossilized resin in the world.

The discovered amber is not large but is of high quality, featuring solid, transparent, and translucent particles, indicating its burial near the surface. For the investigations, the researchers had to crush the starting material into fragments about one millimeter in size before they could pick out the amber. Nevertheless, possible remnants of tree bark can be recognized in the amber. The team found indications for pathological resin flow in the amber, a strategy trees use to seal damaged bark induced by parasites or wildfires, creating a chemical and physical barrier protecting from insect attacks and infections.

Around 90 million years ago, climatic conditions in Antarctica were suitable for resin-producing trees, allowing them to grow and survive. At that time, climatic conditions in West Antarctica allowed these trees to thrive. AWI marine geologist Johann P. Klages said, "The amber fragments that we have now been able to analyze allow a direct insight into the environmental conditions of West Antarctica about 90 million years ago," according to Die Welt. He added, "It is totally exciting that on all seven continents at some point in their history climatic conditions existed that allowed resin-producing trees to survive," as reported by Science Daily.

Dr. Klages further commented, "This fascinating find also indicates in more detail how the forest we reconstructed in our Nature study from 2020 could have functioned," according to Science Daily. He continued, "Our goal now is to learn more about the forest ecosystem—if it burned down, if we can find traces of life included in the amber. This discovery allows a journey to the past in yet another more direct way." 

Henny Gerschel, who contributed to the publication for TU Bergakademie Freiberg, said, "Our discovery is another piece of the puzzle that helps us better understand the swampy, conifer-dominated, temperate rainforest near the South Pole from the mid-Cretaceous period," according to Die Welt.

The team believes that the presence of amber, along with the indications of pathological resin flow, could shed light on the ecological conditions of the time. The amber provides evidence of resin-producing trees in a region that is now one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth. This discovery supports the idea that Antarctica once had a much warmer and more temperate climate.

The amber's characteristics suggest that it was buried near the surface, preserving its quality over millions of years. The possible remnants of tree bark recognized in the amber may offer further insights into the species of trees that once grew in West Antarctica.

Sources: Die Welt, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Science Daily

This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq