Facts About Blue Diamonds

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Diamonds are composed of carbon atoms that have been subject to extreme pressure and heat. If the diamond contains no impurities then the color will be crystal clear. Nature rarely creates anything that does not have any impurities in it. Most diamonds will contain some amounts of nitrogen atoms. If a few of the millions of carbon atoms have been replaced by nitrogen atoms, then structure of the diamond will not be significantly altered but the clarity will be changed.When sunlight, which contains all colors, passes thought a diamond some of the light waves will be reflected by the nitrogen. The amount of color displayed is dependent on the amount of nitrogen involved. When we see color it is because the object we are looking at reflected a specific wavelength of the light spectrum. A good example of this is a pair of blue jeans. The jeans absorb all of the light except the blue light, which is reflected by the jeans. In the case of a blue colored diamond some of the nitrogen has been replaced by Boron. Boron will reflect the blue wavelength of the light spectrum. The higher the concentration of boron the more color will be showed. At a level of one or a few boron atoms for every million-carbon atom, an attractive blue color results. Natural diamonds of this color are rare and highly priced, such as the Hope diamond. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has developed a color chart for grading diamonds.GIA Color Chart.D, E, F = ColorlessK, L, M = Faint ColorN, O, P, Q, R = Very Faint ColorS through Z = Light ColorColored diamonds are very rare and very expensive. The Blue diamond is one of the rarest, and in my option the most desirable of the colored diamonds. The Hope diamond, which can be viewed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., is the most famous blue diamond in the world, and at 45.52 carats the largest.The Hope Diamond is more than a billion years old and it is the worlds' largest deep blue diamond. It was first found in Golconda, India in the early 1600s and has had a very checkered past ever since. It has crossed oceans and continents many times, has been owned by Kings and Commoners, has been stolen and recovered, sold and resold, cut and re-cut.Famous Blue Diamonds are valuable investments and include such stones as The Queen of Holland, The Blue Empress, and The Regent Diamond. There are very few blue diamonds and the owners rarely sell these because of their value. The blue stones that are famous come in a wide range of hues. There are at least six different shades of blue in the diamonds that have become famous. The shade of the diamond is usually a matter of preference for those looking for special colors in the diamonds that they buy.The famous blue diamonds come in different shapes including pear shaped and octagon shaped. The cut of these valuable gems is especially important for large, colored stones and the cut must enhance the natural beauty of these wonderful gems. Sometimes the largest stones that are found with a blue color are studied extensively before any cutting is begun.

Facts Regarding Diamonds

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Millions of years ago the ancient oceans had microorganisms that lived and died in the oceans. When the microorganisms died there bodies fell to the ocean floor. After the bodies decomposed, what was left was almost pure carbon. The crust of the earth surface is in constant motion. Movement is due to tectonic plates and the continental drift. When one of the tectonic plates was pushed under another the bodies of the microorganism, now carbon, is also buried under tons of rock. The carbon is subject to extreme pressures by the rock pressing down upon it and by extreme heat, which is usually between 1100, and 1400 degrees Celsius. If the carbon being acted upon is pure then the diamond will be colorless which is normal for diamonds. If nitrogen or sulfur is also included in the carbon then some color may be added to the diamond.This process preserves the unique crystal structure that makes diamonds the hardest natural material known. The arrangement of the atoms causes the diamonds to have tighter atoms than any other substance in the world. When volcanoes erupted, every once in a while, the microorganisms, which are now diamonds, are forced to the service. Conventional diamonds are mined from explosive volcanic rocks (kimberlites) that transport them from depths in excess of 100 kilometers by volcanic action. Man Made.Scientists from Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory managed to produce gems that are harder than any other crystals. These man made diamonds were produced using a gas mixture. The crystals that were produced were so hard that the instruments and paraphernalia used to make them broke. The great part about these man made diamonds is they were created in less than a day.Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure, about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. That is a very simplistic view and also very hard to do. Modern methods use a very complicated process that requires the crystals to be grown using a special high growth-rate chemical vapor deposition. Then the crystals were exposed to very high pressure and temperatures make them harder. There is then a production of a chemical reaction that yields what is called carbon rain. The carbon rain atoms arrange themselves in the same structure as the container or seed used to catch the carbon rain. As they arrange themselves into a tight composition, they turn into man-made diamonds.Most of the man made diamonds are yellow in color. This is due to the chemicals used in the creation process. Man-made diamonds are very difficult to distinguish from natural ones. A trained jeweler could tell the difference if he could detect the different growth patterns and the lack of inclusions. Inclusions are the tiny bits of material that are usually embedded in a natural diamond and are considered a flaw. Insist on a certification before purchasing a diamond for investment purposes. It will tell you the stone's carat weight, its color and clarity, and its flaws. If the seller is unwilling to supply a certification with the diamond then he may not be telling the truth and you should find someone who will.