Diamonds
Diamond is the best known gem. It is known as the “king of gems” for its brilliance and for being the hardest mineral on earth. (Foa, p.50) Its characteristics enable it to be used for many different purposes. Since are the hardest gems on Mohs’ scale, they make useful tools for industrial purposes, such as drilling hard materials. However, they are quite rare, which makes them very valuable. Their beauty and brilliance make them perfect for jewelry.
Diamond is made up of carbon. Another form of pure carbon is graphite. Graphite is the stable form of carbon, found at the earth’s surface. Despite the fact that they have identical chemical composition, the two minerals are drastically ...
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between graphite and are accounted for by the conditions in which they are created.
form over long periods of time, between 100 km and 200 km below the surface. At this great depth, carbon gets a chance to cool very gradually, forming diamond crystals. When volcanic eruptions occur, magma carries the up to the surface of the earth. Kimberlite lavas carrying erupt at anywhere between 10 and 30 km/hour and increase their velocity to several hundred km/hour within the last few kilometers. (Pough, 44) At the surface, this lava cools and turns into Kimberlite rock. That is why are often found in kimberlite, a volcanic rock, which is often much younger than the themselves. All that are around today are at least 990,000,000 years old. If the same element carbon found its way to the surface, before it got a chance to form crystals and solidify, it would turn into graphite.
Diamond crystals occur in a variety of shapes and forms. There are octahedral, cubic, and dodecahedral ...
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weight. A diamond cutter or jeweler determines the color of a diamond by comparing it visually with "knowns," or the for which the color has already been determined. For example, in "colorless" or not "fancy" stones, the value of the stone goes down with increasing yellow. However, once the color content reaches the point where the stone is considered a fancy stone, it becomes very expensive.
The most familiar are white or colorless, usually with a tinge of yellow or gray. However, come in a wide variety of colors. There are golden yellow, pink, brown, and green , just to name a few of the possibilities. Richly colored stones are called “fancies” and are very rare and expensive. ...
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Diamonds. (2005, May 31). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Diamonds/27753
"Diamonds." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 31 May. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Diamonds/27753>
"Diamonds." Essayworld.com. May 31, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Diamonds/27753.
"Diamonds." Essayworld.com. May 31, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Diamonds/27753.
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