Although diamonds are not rare, they are as precious as the scarcest stones. Diamonds remain quite expensive though in abundance than some other stones. Although diamonds formed tens of millions of years ago.
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They remain a key symbol of wealth and like other old stones diamonds become more valuable due to its age and owner’s status. The diamonds incidentally like man are more reputable, because of experiences.
The thought of owning diamonds brings chills down anyone’s spine, because it is very much so attached to wealth, status and power. Wealth, status and power, which has been a thirst quencher for man ever since their creation on this earth. Thus, diamonds have been an affirmation for power and wealth.
Truth be told we all would love to own one of the rare colorless diamonds that perhaps who hoped to be just somewhere one the ground. The problem is diamonds are not found on the Earth’s surface; they are way down. We are talking kilometres down and that’s why you have heard so much controversy about diamond mines.
But also, the reason why you have been yet to find a random diamond just lying there in your backyard. It is obvious that synthetic and imitation diamonds especially will be much younger than natural diamonds.
Throughout the world many persons visualize diamonds as more than just a jewellery, but also have a spiritual connection. Diamond is seen as a reflection of tranquillity, commitment and faithfulness.
This has caused people to put even more emphasis on its value. One of the world’s oldest diamond minds is in India, it produces diamonds billions of years old. African countries like Botswana and Sierra Leone also produce diamonds, to date one of the world’s largest diamond mines is situated in Russia.
What are Diamonds?
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Diamonds are scarce, they possess mineral components made up with carbon. Each carbon fragment is surrounded by four carbon particles, with its features made up of crystal and diamond cubic.
Diamond is tough and has the highest thermal conduction than any other natural material. Diamonds are found deep in the Earth because its particles are uniquely created, with only a few impurities.
The impurities of the diamond affect its colour and its plethora of reflections to different colours. Diamond is a rare, naturally occurring mineral composed of carbon. Each carbon atom in a diamond is surrounded by four other carbon atoms and connected to them by strong covalent bonds – the strongest type of chemical bond. Simply put, diamonds may create the most durable objects.
You may be thinking that diamonds are just jewels, they are seen as just this, but they can be much more. So, you could say make an extreme cutting tool or perhaps a weapon out of diamonds, but this will of course be absolutely expensive.
But diamonds are also known to be used in lenses as well, and perhaps in anything the owner wishes to put it in most diamonds appears to be brown or yellow, but the jewellery industry favours colourless diamonds.
They are more exquisite and valuable, colours like green, blue, violet, pink; among others that are extremely rare are also valued. I guess one of the most intriguing properties of any diamond is its toughness though.
The age of Diamonds
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Largely diamonds are recorded to be between I billion to 3.5 billion years. Now each diamond’s age may be different based on the geographical location it was found in or how deep in kilometres it was recovered from the Earth’s mantle.
Diamonds have been said to be recovered from as far as 800 kilometres deep. Most of these diamonds were brought to the Earth’s surface tens of millions of years ago by volcanic eruptions.
These diamonds age makes them more valuable, but it is quite hard to distinctively say a precise age for diamonds. It is a fact that diamonds have been created in the Earth’s mantle many moons ago.
Several factors determine the age of diamonds. One such factor is the number of mineral composites that makes up each diamond. However, it can be noted that it may be quite hard to determine these mineral components in certain aspects of the diamonds and thus this creates a problem for gem cutters to identify actual ages of diamonds.
It is clear that the issue of a diamond’s age is very delicate and there is no one special year for many reasons. No one can safely say the first diamond was created 5 billion or 5 million years ago. However, there is the reality that most diamonds are way older than this.
The truth is that volcanoes have been around forever, and they are all facilitators of volcanic eruptions, thus showcasing how old diamonds are. They are extremely old, unless of course they are our lab made synthetic diamonds or the imitations ones.
I guess then natural diamonds are just simply put hundreds of millions of years old. It’s real that diamonds are so old that perhaps they have been around before all what we know to exist today.
As each day a new diamond is reaped, there are new possibilities of diamond aging, but we are just children trying to find age of a thing perhaps even older than mankind itself.
How are diamonds formed?
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Diamonds were formed over 3 billion years ago deep within the Earth’s crust under hot conditions, which ultimately allowed carbon particles to crystalize and formed diamonds.
Some diamonds form when volcanic eruptions deposit igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites. On the other hand, Synthetic diamonds are grown from high purity carbon under high pressures.
Imitation diamonds are most commonly rich in materials such as cubic zirconia and silicon carbide. These diamonds are all distinguished using thermal energy. This process is important to abscond illegitimate pricing and help to maintain a diamond’s true value.
Incidentally, this process is also very important in understanding the age of real diamonds. The formation of diamonds is a reflection of the formation of life on the Earth’s surface, only that it takes tens of millions of years.
We are created in our mother’s wombs and nurtured for months and the landscape around us is constantly changing based on technological advancements around us. The same goes for diamonds; it’s though they are in their womb (Earth’s mantle) for such a longer period, they become more developed and a more valuable resource.
Perhaps we could call the volcanoes the diamonds mother and the molten lava rocks the eggs, which coats it. The magma protects it and helps it to simmer and form into its beauty overtime.
All this fuss about diamond’s value is based on the length of time, which natural diamonds take to be formed. I could not simply expect a natural diamond today to be a year old. And though the technology has helped man to create synthetic lab made diamonds, they are simply not as valued.
The very nature of the diamond being created and exhumed after so many centuries showcase the authenticity and not a lab made copy. We can see how synthetic and imitation diamonds play a role in society, but they are just simply put mimics in many ways.
The movie blood diamond showcases the value of natural diamonds and what a single piece is really worth. In essence, for some of the diamond mine workers worldwide a better life and a new identity is a metaphorical representation of these diamonds.
The different types of Diamonds
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Natural and synthetic diamonds are generally made of the same properties, the only difference is that synthetic diamonds are created in a lab, whilst natural diamonds are formed in the Earth’s crust.
Synthetic diamonds are only an alternative to natural diamonds. Truth be told, imitation diamonds are not even a real comparison to our synthetic diamonds, but it is a diamond, so we have to speak about it.
We often watch robbery movies when diamonds are switched out and then a gem cutter has to then authenticate it. Those are the real imitation diamonds, and in many cases can be easily spotted, but these diamonds are not only for movies.
Some of us may have bought a relatively expensive diamond ring for our spouse on our poor salary. Yeah that could be an imitation as well, the truth is that maybe all we could afford for now is the imitation diamonds and so we see its purposes.
But, it often creates problems for persons having natural diamonds and persons being tricked into buying an imitation for nature. I mean the price will be drastically low and so that will be an indicator, but we have all made mistakes.
And our desires for a product may lead us to think unrealistically as well. So though in the back of our heads we realise we are being conned, we still take the con because we want the thing to be so true.
Nowadays, you have people hiring their specialist for these kinds of things, but everyone is corrupt so that’s another challenge for us knowing the differences again.
The good thing is that we know they are three kinds and so we are on the lookout when someone wants to sell us an imitation quite expensive even more than its real value.