Have you ever looked closely at a diamond? Nothing quite compares to its dazzling beauty, sheer elegance and fiery brilliance! It is the hardest natural substance on earth. It is, in fact, 40 times harder than a sapphire or a ruby, the next hardest minerals. Only another diamond can scratch a diamond.
A diamond is the greatest conductor of heat, is transparent over the greatest number of wavelengths, has the highest melting point (4,090 degrees Celsius--2 1/2 times greater than that of steel!) and has a refractive index greater than any naturally occurring gemstone--giving it its characteristic fire and brilliance. Diamonds are among the rarest and costliest of gemstones.
But you may ask: What magical substance is a diamond made of? Ironically, just about the same substance found in one of the softest of all minerals--the graphite in the lead of your pencil! Diamonds are pure crystalline carbon formed 200 kilometers deep within the earth millions of years ago. The elemental forces of heat and pressure transformed the carbon into diamond in the cauldron of boiling magma that lay deep below the surface of the earth. The volcanic mass in which this crystallization took place then thrust upwards and broke through the earth's surface to cool in kimberlite pipes. It is in these pipes that most diamonds are found today.www.ucgstp.org By Daniel Roy Macaraeg
No comments:
Post a Comment