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 Many
million ago years, the island of "La Hispañola"
began to be formed by parts, emerging from the marine
depth.
The first Central Mountain range was
constituted by volcanic rocks. Approximately 100
million years ago, began to emerge the Mountain
range of Bahoruco, in the southwest of the island,
starting with its Eastern portion. In its constitution
it also contained volcanic rocks which in geology
are well-known as andesines and basalts.
As the magma or incandescent parts
of the interior of the planet were pushed towards
outside, the masses became visible on the terrestrial
crust and, when cooling off, would give origin to
the rock bulk. The chemical components of these
incandescent solutions were very diverse. The minerals
in form of silicates stood out and were mixed with
aluminum components, as well as sodium, calcium,
iron, etc.... forming therefore essential and secondary
minerals. Among all this chemical package, an association
which is very little frequent in nature, formed
itself: silicium-oxygenate with sodic and calcic
elements.
 Thus
they formed randomly in suitable proportions compact
concretions of small masses, which had some brightness
and manifold color variaties which are known in
geology by the name of pectolites. This name was
given by the German geologist Kobell in 1828 as
he joined the Greek words pektos ("something
formed by different parts") and lithos ("rock").
The pectolite is, therefore, a secondary rock.
The vulcanic process, could move
over the years incandescent masses to the surface
that changed the rocks that already had formed there.
Limestone rocks started to build up on top of them,
but the hot gases and the concentrated fire perforated
the rocks creating true tubular chimneys.
Because of the high temperature affecting
the incandescent masses that had been pushed by
the gases of the interior, the crystallization of
some materials took place. When the volcanic lava
was cooling off in the chimney, it became columns
as a firm support of a mass in which blue andesites,
pectolites, basalts and other minerals formed. The
dark and gray ashes in the tube, chimney or column,
showed a strong contrast with the color of the other
materials.
 So,
by the end of the Miocene, the rocks layed exposed
on limestone. The process of erosion and meteorization,
as a result of the meteorological conditions (water,
wind, temperature...), fractured and moved some
rock fragments into the bed of the Bahoruco river,
and from here, the waters took them to the coasts
of the sea. Because of their color and for having
recieved a polishing by friction, they caused much
attention as blue pectolites rocks or larimar.
The pectolite, formerly denominated "ratholite",
is an acid silicate hydrate of calcium and sodium.
Of ample diffusion in the world, we can find deposits
of this mineral, known as outcrop, at very distant
places of the planet: The United States (Michigan,
Arkansas, New Jersey, California), Canada, England
(Scotland), India, Austria (Tyrolia), among others.
They have in fact been results and consequences
of this volcanic Earth activity, many million years
ago.
The only locality where Larimar, or blue pectolite
appears on the terrestrial crust, is the province
of Barahona, in the south-western region of the
Dominican Republic.
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Larimar
History / Larimar
Mining / Rough
Larimar
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Amber
is a hardened tree resin, consisting
of compounds of terpenes, alcohols, and esters.
Trees produced it as protection against disease
and insect infestation when the bark of a tree
was opened due to limb that broke away or attacks
by wood-boring beetles, or for other reasons.
After oozing out, it hardened in wet sediments,
such as clay and sand that formed at the bottom
of lagoons or river deltas and was preserved
in the earth's crust for millenniums. 
