Map of fossil resins of Ukraine

Finding out the conditions of the geological past under which tar secretions were fossilised and primary bio-sedimentary deposits of protoamber were accumulated and amber-succinite placers formed in the marine environment is an important link in scientific research. Insufficient study of amber-succinite as an organic formation, which has gone through a difficult path of transition from wildlife to minerals, leads to irrational use and search for such valuable raw materials and its extraction is much less beneficial than planned. The authors have carried out a comprehensive systematization of accumulated knowledge on amber-succinite and other mineral types of mineral resins in Ukraine and the entire Baltic-Dnipro amber province. The article discusses the creation of a new map of mineral fossil resins in Ukraine. In addition to the known amber-bearing zones, deposits and occurrences of amber, the map carriespaleogeological and predicted loads, is closely related to the formation of both secondary placers of amber-succinite and primary biogenic-sedimentary deposits – resin bodies, transitional composition in the first half of the Middle Eocene (Buchakian time). In order to develop a reasonable forecast of the deposits, the authors identified the root source of amber-succinite placers, which is represented by biogenic-sedimentary deposits of resin bodies.  These deposits were formed in the Lower Middle Eocene during the Buchakian time on land of the Ukrainian Shield, most often within swampy accumulative depressions associated with ancient faults and structural tectonic traps. The conditions of the geological past, under which tar secretions were fossilized and primary biogenic-sedimentary deposits of the protoamber were accumulated, as well as the formation of amber-succinite placers, the first intermediate collectors in the coastal-marine, liman delta and deep-water parts of the paleoshelf, have been clarified. The work carried out by the authors resulted in predicted conclusions about the possibility of finding new areas promising for the discovery of industrial deposits of the most valuable type of fossil resins – amber succinite.