| There are perhaps no two substances more | | | | is subjected to pressures of up to 882,000 pounds |
| different visually or symbolically than diamonds and | | | | per square inch - over 440 tons. Furthermore, the |
| lumps of coal. However, diamonds and coal are | | | | temperatures that cause this transformation into |
| virtually identical from a chemical and geological | | | | white and colored diamonds is over 800 hotter than |
| standpoint. The important difference is that the | | | | the furnaces that are required in the melting and |
| former are not only pleasing to the eye and symbolic | | | | manufacture of steel. |
| as jewelry, they are an excellent investment - and | | | | Such temperatures and pressures only occur naturally |
| useful in industrial machinery as well. | | | | deep under the earth's surface - so deep that even |
| Of course, gem grade stones are quite different - | | | | the deepest diamond mines can only reach these |
| and far more valuable - than industrial grade. In fact, | | | | precious stones that have been brought close to the |
| four fifths of all that are mined are deemed | | | | surface through tremendous geological activity. This is |
| unsuitable for diamond jewelry, and thus are used for | | | | one reason that they are found primarily in the Great |
| industrial applications - primarily in activities that | | | | Rift Valley of Africa and in the Himalayan foothills |
| require cutting, drilling, grinding and polishing. | | | | where the Indian subcontinent plows into Asia. |
| Since the 1950s, scientists have actually been able to | | | | These conditions have been replicable in the |
| manufacture artificial diamonds in laboratories as well. | | | | laboratory for over half a century; however, natural |
| This has to do with the similarity between these and | | | | and artificial diamonds each have their own unique |
| coal, the difference between which is more of | | | | flaws, which are detectable by trained, professional |
| degree than process. Both are made of carbon that | | | | gemologists. |
| has been subjected to heat and pressure. What | | | | One difference has to do with color as well; natural |
| happens is that diamonds are subject to much | | | | colored diamonds are not terribly uncommon, and |
| greater amounts of both - as much as 60,000 times | | | | come in a wide range of hues. Some of these color |
| that of normal air pressure at sea level, and up to | | | | variations can add tremendous value to a gem. Loose |
| 2300 degrees Fahrenheit. | | | | diamonds made artificially are almost always of the |
| To put this into perspective, the pressure of the air | | | | white variety; colored stones make up only one in |
| we live in is about 14.7 pounds per square inch. At | | | | every ten thousand. When purchasing loose diamonds |
| 1083 feet below the sea's surface (the current scuba | | | | whether as an investment or for use in jewelry, |
| diving record), the pressure is over 482 pounds per | | | | make sure that such diamonds have been certified |
| square inch. Carbon that is transformed into diamonds | | | | by an independent gemology professional. |