Diamond informatiion

[PinkDiamond]

Diamonds show depth extent of Earth's carbon cycle
September 15, 2011

DiamondNearlyOctahedralCrystalinMatrix-Wikimedia Commons.jpg (8.02 KiB) Viewed 465 times

Nearly octahedral diamond crystal in matrix. Image: Wikimedia Commons

"Scientists have speculated for some time that the Earth's carbon cycle extends deep into the planet's interior, but until now there has been no direct evidence. The mantle–Earth's thickest layer –is largely inaccessible. A team of researchers analyzed diamonds that originated from the lower mantle at depths of 435 miles (700 kilometers) or more, and erupted to the surface in volcanic rocks called kimberlites.

The diamonds contain what are impurities to the gemologist, but are known as mineral inclusions to the geologist. Analysis shows compositions consistent with the mineralogy of oceanic crust. This finding is the first direct evidence that slabs of oceanic crust sank or subducted into the lower mantle and that material, including carbon, is cycled between Earth's surface and depths of hundreds of miles.

The research is published in the September 15, 2011, online Science Express.

Diamonds show depth extent of Earth's carbon cycle

MineralInclusionsInDiamondsCanRevealMuchAboutEarths....jpg (12.76 KiB) Viewed 465 times

Like an insect in amber, mineral inclusions trapped in diamonds can reveal much about the Earth's deep interior. The study by Walter et al. in Science reveals mineral inclusions that originated in oceanic crust subducted into the lower mantle. Image: Carnegie Institution/AAAS

The mantle extends from as little as 5 to 1,800 miles (10-2,900 kilometers) beneath the Earth's surface. Most diamonds are free from inclusions and come from depths less than 120 miles (200 km). But in a few localities researchers have found super-deep diamonds from the depths of the convecting upper and lower mantle, as well as the transition zone in between. Whereas inclusions in diamonds from the depths of the upper mantle and transition zone have been consistent with a surface-rock origin, none from the lower mantle have borne this signature until now. ..."

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-dia ... arbon.html

The diamonds contain what are impurities to the gemologist, but are known as mineral inclusions to the geologist.

Gemologists don't know them as mineral inclusions?

I didn't write it.

[PinkDiamond]

WHOA!!!! Wait til you see this thing!!


It’s a whopper: 550 carat diamond found in Lesotho
Published: 23 September 2011

"The Letšeng Star, the 14th largest diamond ever to be recovered has been unveiled by Gem Diamonds and the Government of Lesotho. The 550 carat diamond was found at the Letšeng mine, the highest diamond mine in the world, located in the remote African nation of Lesotho.

The newly baptised 550 carat Letšing Star was found in the Letšeng mine on the 19th August. It is currently in Antwerp where it has been boiled twice in acid to remove any traces or kimberlite to establish its true weight which has been confirmed at an impressive 550 carats. Gem Diamonds has stated that the Letšeng Star is a Type IIA, D colour, which means that it is a high quality diamond. The rough diamond is somewhere in size between a golf ball and a cricket ball. ..."

http://blog.jewelove.in/2011/09/worlds- ... 50cts.html

http://www.thejewelleryeditor.com/2011/ ... n-lesotho/

:shock: that's a honker! nice!!

[PinkDiamond]

Forevermark Launches Virtual Diamond Try-On
By JCK Staff - Posted on October 4, 2011

"On Oct. 3, Forevermark launched My Forevermark Fitting—a virtual try-on experience that features jewelry with Forevermark diamonds sparkling and moving with the wearer’s finger in real time.

Consumers—using a webcam and the special Forevermark cut-outs—can select from 12 pieces including ear studs, a contemporary princess-cut solitaire ring, and a rare pear-cut diamond pendant. Users will also be able to choose the carat weight of the diamond rings.

Forevermark worked in partnership with the creative agency AKQA and Holition, a company that specializes in augmented reality, to create the program."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UROtXsnwg7A

http://www.jckonline.com/2011/10/04/for ... dium=email

[PinkDiamond]

Diamondoid nanoparticles improve electron emitters
http://www.rdmag.com/news/2012/09/diamondoid-nanoparticles-improve-electron-emitters

Diamondoids are nanoparticles made of only a handful of carbon atoms, arranged in the same way as in diamond, forming nanometer sized diamond crystals. Previously, researchers at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory demonstrated the fascinating capability of these tiny little diamonds to act as a monochromator for electrons. In short, a thin layer of diamondoids deposited on a metal surface will first capture the electrons ejected from the surface below due to its negative electron affinity. These electrons, which are emitted from the metal with a wide variety of kinetic energies—or colors—are then re-emitted by the diamondoid layer but with a very narrow energy distribution. This property, which is unique to diamondoid, is believed to enable the development of a new generation of electron emitters with unprecedented properties.

In photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), electrons emitted from a sample due to x-ray irradiation are used to obtain images of the chemical or magnetic properties of a surface with high spatial resolution. However, chromatic aberrations limit the resolution typically to 20 nm due to the wide energy distribution of the emitted electrons. While it is possible to add expensive and complex correction elements to the microscope, this experiment demonstrates that the energy spread can instead be reduced right at the source by using an inexpensive, simple coating of diamondoids.

Using this approach, the resolution of the PEEM3 microscope at ALS Beamline 11.0.1 improved significantly and researchers were able to attain chemical information from 10 nm Au nanoparticles. The study exemplifies how a problem not suited to conventional engineering solutions can be solved with the help of the unique properties of a nanoparticle.

Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

But imagine using them as a polish... 8)

Lol, Art, about using them for polish. First time i have heard of diamonoids. Very interesting and thanks for sharing.

That's the first I've heard of diamondoids too. Sounds like they're diamonds with hemorrhoids.

[PinkDiamond]

Most of the time leaving your car doors unlocked isn't such a good idea anymore, but for this guy, it was a 15K bonus!! Why don't things like this happen to ME??!!

JCK
Generally, it’s not a good idea to leave your car unlocked, but for one man in 2005, being unsafe yielded a windfall. The Westborough, Mass., commuter returned to his auto and found a box with a white bow...

msnbc | Aired on October 31, 2012

A $15,000 surprise

Dec. 16: A Massachusetts man returned to his unlocked car to find a "Merry Christmas" note and a $15,000 diamond ring. WHDH-TV's Juli Auclair reports.

Video here:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc/10398817

:shock: Amazing!

The note left by the giver was pretty sad though.

Yes, but it was a good way to get closure after such a sad event.

[PinkDiamond]

Diamond as a building material for optical circuits
April 11th, 2013 in Physics / Optics & Photonics
Diamond as a building material for optical circuits


Two parallel free-standing waveguides made of polycrystalline diamond serve as mechanical resonators. Optical fields (red/blue) are observed to propagate inside of them. Credit: KIT/CFN/Pernice

The application of light for information processing opens up a multitude of possibilities. However, to be able to adequately use photons in circuits and sensors, materials need to have particular optical and mechanical properties. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now for the first time used polycrystalline diamond to manufacture optical circuits and have published their results online in Nature Communications.

"Diamond has several properties that allow us to manufacture all components of a ready-to-use optomechanical circuit monolithically, so to speak," says KIT research group leader Wolfram Pernice. "The elements thus manufactured that is, the resonators, circuits, and the wafer, are attractive because of their high quality."

Diamond is optically transparent to light waves of a wide range of wavelengths including the visible spectrum between 400 and 750 nm. It is due to this fact that it can be used specifically in optomechanical circuits for applications in sensor technology and fluorescence imaging, or for novel optical biological measuring methods. Whereas the high refractive index of diamond and the absence of absorption allow an efficient photon transport, its high modulus of elasticity makes it a robust material which adapts excellently to rough surfaces and releases heat rapidly.

So far, optical circuits have been manufactured using monocrystalline diamond substrates i.e., highly pure crystals with typically no more than one impurity atom to every one billion diamond atoms. Such circuits are bound to be small and their application to optical systems has required sophisticated fabrication methods.

Now, for the first time, the research group headed by Pernice used polycrystalline diamond for the fabrication of wafer-based optomechanical circuits. Even though its crystal structures are more irregular, polycrystalline diamond is robust and thus can be more easily processed. It is due to these specific properties that polycrystalline diamond can be used on much larger areas than monocrystalline material. Polycrystalline diamond conducts photons almost as efficiently as the monocrystalline substrate and is suitable for industrial use. As a matter of fact, monolithic optomechanical components could not have been manufactured without this new material.

Optomechanics combines integrated optics with mechanical elements e.g., with nanomechanical resonators in the case of the optomechanical circuit developed by Pernice and his group. These oscillatory systems react to a certain frequency. When that frequency occurs, the resonator is excited into vibration. "Nanomechanical resonators are among today's most sensitive sensors and are used in various precision measurements. It is extremely difficult, however, to address such smallest components through conventional measuring methods," explains Patrik Rath, first author of the study. "In our study, we have made use of the fact that today, nanophotonic components can be manufactured in the same sizes as nanoscale mechanical resonators. When the resonator responds, corresponding optical signals are transferred directly to the circuit." This novel development has allowed the combining of once separate fields of research and has enabled the realization of highly efficient optomechanical circuits.

Integrated optics works in a similar manner to integrated electrical circuits. Whereas optical circuits transmit information via photons, conventional electronic circuits transfer data via electrons. Integrated optics aims to combine all components required for optical communication in an integrated optical circuit to avoid a detour via electrical signals. In both cases, the respective circuits are applied to slices less than one mm in thickness i.e., to the so-called wafers.

The polycrystalline diamond was manufactured in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics and the company Diamond Materials in Freiburg, Germany. The prototypes manufactured within the Integrated Quantum Photonics-project at the DFG Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) in Karlsruhe open up new ways for entirely optically controlled platforms that are increasingly needed in fundamental research and advanced sensor technologies. These technologies include accelerometers that are integrated in various electronic devices such as airbag sensors or smartphone waterlevels.

http://phys.org/news/2013-04-diamond-ma ... cuits.html

Interesting stuff Art. I don't really understand it but what I get from it is amazing.

[PinkDiamond]

A Lone Bandit and the Mystery of France's Greatest Diamond Heist

A gunman stole $136 million of jewelry from an exhibition at the Intercontinental Carlton Cannes hotel in July. Investigators and gem experts are still wondering how it happened.

The terrace doors of the opulent Intercontinental Carlton Cannes hotel on the French Riviera were supposed to be locked.

But before lunchtime on the last Sunday of July, a thief—whose face was obscured with a bandanna and a motorcycle helmet—managed to slip through them and directly into an exhibition room loaded with millions of dollars worth of Leviev diamonds, "the world's most extraordinary." Armed with an automatic pistol and an uncanny familiarity with the setting, the mystery bandit began his heist.

"He was professional and very rapid," Philippe Vique, a deputy prosecutor for the region based in the nearby town of Grasse, told the New York Times a day later. Vique told The Atlantic he was no longer divulging details about the investigation, which is ongoing.

The robber was not confronted with a particularly intimidating scenario. Because the exhibit had not yet opened, there were no hotel guests or customers milling about. In fact, he had arrived at exactly the most opportune moment, just before the high-profile jewels were to be loaded into secure display cases.

He did have to contend with a small group that had gathered in the room: two vendors, a show manager, and three unarmed private security guards, according to the Associated Press. But the threat of the firearm was evidently enough to hold them off.

They watched as he seized a briefcase and a box full of jewels belonging to Israeli diamond and real estate billionaire Lev Leviev. The haul contained 72 pieces, 34 of which were considered "exceptional" because of the gems' unblemished clarity, brilliant color (which, in diamond circles, sometimes means no color at all), large carat weight, and their intricate cuts and polishes by master craftsmen. The company aims to deliver natural, non-treated gems, meaning that it avoids dyeing, filling, and other processes frequently used to enhance the clarity and color of raw stones. The loot included "many high karat, internally flawless colorless diamonds along with large pink and yellow diamonds, and emeralds and sapphires, set in platinum and 18k gold,” according to Forbes.

the rest is at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... st/278969/

8)

Great to see you posting Art, and thanks for the inside story.

[PinkDiamond]

Apparently these guys completed the course.

Sparkling discovery: Antarctica may contain diamonds
By Charles Q. Choi - Published December 19, 2013 - LiveScience

"Antarctica might have a new kind of ice diamonds might exist there, a new study finds.

The finding, detailed online Dec. 17 in the journal Nature Communications, suggests the gems could be found on every continent, researchers say.

Diamonds form under the immense heat and pressure found nearly 100 miles below Earth's surface, in the planet's mantle layer, which is sandwiched between the outer crust and the core. Powerful volcanic eruptions bring these precious stones to Earth's surface, where they are embedded in blue-tinged rocks known as kimberlites.

Kimberlites can range from 10,000 to 2.1 billion years in age, and can have the deepest sources of any rocks on Earth's surface.

"Kimberlites in general inform us about conditions in the Earth's interior," said study lead author Gregory Yaxley, a geologist at Australian National University in Canberra. "Their geochemistry holds clues about the nature of the source rocks at these extreme depths."

Until now, kimberlites were found on every continent except Antarctica. Now, scientists have discovered these rocks on the southernmost continent.

Kimberlites on every continent
Researchers analyzed geological samples from boulders on the ... "

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/12/ ... -diamonds/

Y'all ready for a field trip to Antarctica to hound for diamonds (and possibly garnets, too, since garnets are an indicator for diamond, I think?)?? Brrrr!!

Instead of a polar bear engraved there's should show you a penguin

*edited to let you know they moved the story, so the link is dead. Sorry but we have no idea where the rest of the story went.

[PinkDiamond]

The lawsuit over the way the price of gold is set has bled over into the diamond sector, with questions about how to make the pricing more fair. It will be interesting to see if anything changes or the 'old ways' are firmly held in place.

The Gold Price Benchmark Is Looking Outdated. Is the Diamond Benchmark Too?
By Rob Bates, Senior Editor - Posted on March 7, 2014

"This week brought news of a class-action lawsuit that charges the five banks overseeing the daily gold price fix with manipulating the market.

For those unfamiliar, since 1919, London fix prices have been set twice daily by five banks, in recent years by teleconference. You can read details of this mechanism here.

Detractors note this system is close to a century old and places power in the hands of a few actors, with little transparency or oversight. At least one critic suggests that it be replaced by a system based on electronic trades.

The diamond business, too, has long sought a standard, and for the last four decades, the Rapaport list has been it, even spawning its own lingo (“below Rap,” “above Rap”).

The “Rap sheet” is overseen by Martin Rapaport, who derives it every week based on his reading of the market. I have tremendous respect for Martin (who gave me my start in this business), and he has run “Rap sheet” in an ethical and at times courageous manner; in the 1980s, he famously received death threats when the trade thought prices were going too low.

But like the gold price fix, it was born in a different age. ..."

http://www.jckonline.com/blogs/cutting- ... -306540353

[PinkDiamond]

OK girls, get ready.

This mob has the goods. Watch this movie about a diamond and then have a look at their other videos.

Way out of my budget, but just beautiful rings and rocks. That thing for 4 million is amazing.

I wonder who thse really belonged to, cream of Hollywood I am sure, cmon girls, whose are they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... UuAFr_mUKM

OK girls, get ready...

I wonder who thse really belonged to, cream of Hollywood I am sure, cmon girls, whose are they?

Not sure who owned the bling bling ring, Mick. I agree the one for NR, and a private listing, that you posted a youtube video showing the ring, is gorgeous. I really like the rosegold prongs holding the pink diamond and the white diamond accents are set in white gold.

Who buys this kind of jewelry on fleabay?