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<DIV>If anyone has a solution I'd be very interested to see it. I'd be very worried that anything that will dissolve mineral oil will also dissolve amber.</DIV>
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<DIV>We have a considerable collection of amber from Cedar Lake, Manitoba, that has been stored for several decades in glass vials in mineral oil. I guess it was initially done to prevent oxidation of the amber. In a few cases the amber appears to be slowly disintegrating, although these may have been transferred to a different medium.</DIV>
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<DIV>I am not aware of any safe way to clean the mineral oil without damaging the amber, especially as it has probably penetrated tiny cracks. This can be a problem when the specimens are studied. It is common practice to embed amber in epoxy resin so that it can be oriented to study the inclusions. Grimaldi 1997 recounts an incident in which the oil reacted with the epoxy and destroyed a type specimen. </DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Grimaldi, David and Paul Nascimbene.. “Appendix: Vacuum embedding and disintegration of the type of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Sphecomyrma freyi</I>.” In “New and rediscovered primitive ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Cretaceous amber from New Jersey, and their phylogenetic relationships,” by David Grimaldi, Donat Agosti, And James M. Carpenter, 41-43. <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">American Museum Novitates</I> 3208 (1997):1-43.</FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">I have heard other anecdotal accounts of epoxy resins reacting exothermically with silicone oil. While one or two of our old specimens have been successfully embedded for restudy, I would not allow the practice again, given this knowledge, if there is any possibly it was ever stored in mineral oil.</FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Thanks,</FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Janet</FONT></P></DIV>
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<DIV>Janet Waddington<BR>Assistant Curator and Collection Manager<BR>Department of Natural History - Palaeobiology<BR>Royal Ontario Museum<BR>100 Queen's Park<BR>Toronto, ON<BR>Canada M5S 2C6<BR>Phone (416) 586-5593 Fax (416) 586-5553<BR>Email janetw@rom.on.ca>>> Rhian Russell <rhian.russell@gov.ab.ca> 6/18/2012 3:50 PM >>><BR></DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal>Hey all,</P>
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<P class=MsoNormal>We have some amber in our collection that was stored in vials and immersed in some sort of oily liquid. We were thinking it may be mineral oil? Whatever it is, it seems to have eaten through some of the plastic vials, and it’s quite messy. </P>
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<P class=MsoNormal>Has anyone experienced this, and have any idea how to clean it off without damaging the amber? Should it even be removed?</P>
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<P class=MsoNormal>Cheers,</P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang=EN-CA>Rhian Russell</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" lang=EN-CA></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang=EN-CA>Conservation Technician</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" lang=EN-CA></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang=EN-CA>Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology,</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" lang=EN-CA></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang=EN-CA>Box 7500, Drumheller, Alberta T0J 0Y0</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" lang=EN-CA></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang=EN-CA>Phone: (403) 823 7707 Ext. 3306</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" lang=EN-CA></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang=EN-CA>E-mail: <A href="mailto:rhian.russell@gov.ab.ca"><SPAN style="COLOR: blue">rhian.russell@gov.ab.ca</SPAN></A></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" lang=EN-CA></SPAN></P>
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