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Are Irradiated Diamonds Safe?
Because many green diamonds obtain their color from exposure to radiation in a laboratory (a process known as irradiation), there have been concerns about their safety when used in jewelry. All companies in the United States that apply radiation treatments to any type of gemstone must be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These companies must use…
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What Causes the Color of Green Diamonds?
A) Formation of Natural-Color Green Diamonds Diamonds with a natural green color developed that color while they were underground, in rocks that contained small amounts of radioactive material such as uranium or thorium. As the radioactive materials decayed, they emitted radiation that penetrated the nearby diamond crystal. When this type of radiation enters a diamond, it can…
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Natural Green Color in Diamonds
In many green diamonds, the color is confined to a thin layer at the surface of the rough stone. The design and cut of the polished diamond must be carefully planned and executed to conserve as much of that original color as possible. Even though the faceting might only preserve a band of green color…
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Have You Seen a Green Diamond?
Natural-color green diamonds are very rare. Of all diamonds cut into polished gems in any given year, a very small number of them will have a dominant green color. Diamonds with a natural green color are rare enough that many people have never seen one, and those who have seen one are likely to have seen it…
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Thuringia
The Fall at Thuringia in 1581: An artist’s depiction of a meteorite fall that occurred near Thuringia, Germany, during the afternoon of July 26, 1581. A loud explosion that seemed to shake the Earth and a bright flash were observed throughout the area. Then a 39-pound rock fell from the sky, burying itself into the soil…
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Tektite pendant
Tektite pendant: This pendant is a wire cage that encloses a tektite from the Indochina strewn field. Wire wrapping is a popular way to display tektites, meteorites, desert glass, and moldavites. This specimen is about 30 millimeters in height and makes a nice pendant. Smaller specimens are wrapped with finer gauge wire and used as earrings.…
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Tektite
Tektite: An excellent example of an Indochinite tektite from Southeast Asia. Tektites are fragments of ejecta produced when a large extraterrestrial object strikes the Earth. The heat of the impact flash melts rock in the impact area and ejects it in the molten state. These molten masses solidify into a natural glass, a mineraloid, in flight and fall…
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Faceted tektite
Faceted tektite: Some people use fragments of tektites to produce faceted stones. They are usually opaque to slightly translucent and have a pitch black color. They have an elegant appearance similar to jet and are enjoyed by many people. Because of their glassy composition, they have a hardness that is less than optimal for use in…
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Diamonds from Space
Diamonds from Space: In the 1980s, researchers discovered that some meteorites are loaded with tiny nanometer-sized diamonds. In fact, about three percent of all carbon found in meteorites is in the form of nanodiamonds. Image by NASA.
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Asteroid Impact Diamonds
Asteroid Impact Diamonds: Large asteroids can hit the earth at a velocity of 15 to 20 miles per second. This produces an impact that is powerful enough to vaporize rock, excavate a huge crater, and blast millions of tons of ejecta into the air. The force at the point of impact exceeds the temperature and pressure…