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The Nature of Diamonds

The hardest substance on earth, diamonds are universally admired for their clarity and sophistication. If you want to crack her heart open to you, you could do worse than diamond jewelry.

Diamond encrusted jewelry carries all kinds of symbolic statements. The symbols range from commitment to a person to the willingness to spend some money on them. After all, diamonds are not cheap.

A commitment to another person is…well, a commitment. A person is looking for a commitment of time and totality. Diamonds are symbols for both of these things because of their nature.

Diamonds are also unique in their creation. They are the only gem created from one element. The element is carbon. Although carbon is common, it is rare in diamond form.

To understand diamonds, you have to first understand carbon. It is the building block of practically everything on the planet. In its pure form, it is not clear or hard.

Diamonds are made entirely of carbon, but only under the right circumstances. This occurs deep in the crust of the planet when carbon is exposed to massive heat and pressure. After millions of years, it forms a hard, clear material.

The diamond is named after the word “adamas”. As you can probably guess, it is Greek. The word means not to be conquered, and is representative of the diamonds strength.

Obviously, diamonds are not just lying around on the ground. They are only found in areas with volcanic veins. After millions of years, the volcanic veins push the diamonds up from the crust of the earth.

As you have probably gathered by now, the age of diamonds is measured over millennia. Most diamonds we find are billions of years old. Yes, that is billions with a B.

Over 80 percent of diamonds mined are useless for jewelry purposes. They simply do not meet the exacting requirements. Instead, they are used in industrial situations such as saws and lasers.

On the human scale, diamonds have not been used as jewelry for as long as you might think. Although royalty is noted to have diamond encrusted things, the first diamond ring on record was only given in 1477. Given their age, that isn’t long ago.

The vary nature of diamonds is what gives them value. The age associated with them is incredible. Throw in the fact they are nearly impossible to break and you have the perfect gem for jewelry. An unbreakable commitment of time.

Article Source: http://www.uberarticles.com/articles

Arsne Bergkamp is with JewelryStoresforYou.com - your source for diamond information. Don't reprint this article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

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