The Blue Moon diamond has a cushion modified brilliant cut, weighs 12.03 ct, and measures 15.57 × 13.47 × 7.55 mm. Its small culet facet enabled us to perform spectroscopy through the parallel faces ...

Of all the sapphire deposits found in Montana, the richest is in the Rock Creek (Gem Mountain) district. Between 1890 and the 1930s, over 65 tonnes of rough sapphire were recovered from this area and ...

Australia’s Sapphire Legacy Australia’s sapphire industry has spurred expertise, innovation, and equipment for colored stone mining throughout the world. Along with having been a major supplier of ...

Industry analysts project that by 2025, 20% of all diamonds on the market will be laboratory-grown. Indeed, the gem industry has seen a significant increase in the quantity, size, and quality of ...

Natural pearl identification is one of the critical problems in pearl research. The DNA study of pearly mollusks and oysters facilitates solving this problem. To fulfill this goal, GIA sent a group ...

Sri Lanka has two monsoon seasons that occur at different times of the year depending on the part of the country. The northeast has monsoons from December through March. In the southwest, where most ...

Cuprian (copper-bearing) tourmaline, known as “Paraíba” tourmaline in the trade, has been an important gem since its discovery in 1989. Until now, almost all of the material reported has been ...

Earth’s surface is divided into tectonic plates, and the ones that make up the ocean floor are destined to sink. Sheets of oceanic crust typically bend and sink down into Earth’s interior at so-called ...

Amethysts from Boudi, Morocco, are characterized by double terminations and hourglass-shaped color zoning. This study provides infor­mation about the geology of the deposit, the mining of the material ...

Manufacture of a solid single-crystal diamond ring is a very complex and challenging process. Once material is removed from the crystal, very fine fractures and imbalanced strain can have severe ...

The micro-world of gems lies at the very core of gemology. Information gathered from observations through the microscope serves as the very foundation for many conclusions drawn on a specimen, ...

Fossicking is a special type of mining activity that Australians love. Australia is a large country rich in many types of gem resources. Come to Australia with the GIA field gemology team to feel the ...