Gems of Africa

Africa is a land of mysteries, of golden sand and ferocious wild animals like lions, a land of poverty and of unimaginable richness in the same time. In Africa you can find precious gems like diamond. Here is some information about this unique gem. Carbon is found, in natural state, in he two allotropic states: diamond and carbon.

Diamond is the stone of the people born in April and the anniversary stone for those who celebrate 10 and 60 years of marriage.

The word “Diamond” comes from the Greek term “adamas” which means “impossible to conquer”, and it suggests the eternity of love. Ever since ancient Greeks, diamond is the traditional symbol of love. In that time they thought they were hardened dew or pieces of stars, or crystallized lightning. Diamond was considered to be, during ancient times magic stone, being reserved only to the kings and gods. It was the stone of the judges, hell, power, the protective amulet of the warriors and it was thought to bring victory, also providing with goodness, and purity of the soul. Many nations believed it protects against the thunder, ghosts, heals sleepwalkers and melancholic people. It was also thought to be an antidote against poison and protector of the pregnant women. It also symbolizes the Sun stone and is the master of April and Saturdays.

Diamond isn’t just “women’s best friend”, it’s also jewel’s best friend. Beauty and rarity of the diamond are legendary. It usually is colorless, but amazing varieties of yellow, blue, violet, green, pick, black or bluish exist also.

Colorless diamond when pure crystallizes in cubic system. Its density is 3.51 g/cm3. The refraction index is unusually high, making the light shine in its own particular way. Diamond is no friend with light and electricity conducting procedure, having only one element in its composition. It is one of the roughest stones of the rare and river stones. It also represents one of the toughest substances there are and for that reason, it’s irreplaceable in cutting or polishing tools. It can only be polished with its own dust. Unfortunately, there is few diamond supply on Earth, one of them used to be in South Africa, offering up to 90% of the world wide production.

Incomparable has been discovered in West Africa, being 47, 48 karat, being a cut out of a larger than 890 karat.

Size considered, it is the 3rd diamond in the world.

Tiffany Yellow is the largest diamond in the world, and it was found in the “De Beers” mine, South Africa, in 1877. It has 128.54 karat.

Crystalline structure: Each carbon atom develops 4 identical valences, evenly directed in space. The angle between them is 109° 28'. Through the 4 valences, each atom is connected to other 4 C atoms, forming a three-dimensional infinite network. The whole crystal is actually a molecule. Inter atomic distances are, 54 Ĺ.

Properties: the crystalline structure of the diamond gives away all its properties. The high vaporization temperature of nearly 4000° and the lack of a liquid phase is explained by the fact that covalence must be broken between the states. Considering the high vaporization temperature, carbon vapors are made of free atoms.