Fascinating Diamond Facts

Diamond Facts 1

- Diamonds were formed billions of years ago approximately 100 miles beneath the earth’s surface through a combination of tremendous pressure and temperatures of 2000 – 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, we don’t have to dig that deep because diamond crystals are brought closer to the earth’s surface through volcanic activity.

- 250 tons of earth must be mined to produce a single one-carat diamond.

- Less than 20 percent of the diamonds mined worldwide are gem-quality.

Diamond Facts 2

- The earliest written account of diamonds dates back to around 500 b.c.

- In their pure state, diamonds are colorless.

- Diamonds come in colors as well. Blue and pink are the rarest colored diamonds, while yellow and brown are the most common.

Diamond Facts 3

- Diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth.

- Diamonds are virtually fireproof. To burn a diamond, it must be heated to one thousand, two hundred and ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit. (The typical house fire reaches a temperature of approximately eleven hundred degrees.)

- Only one polished diamond out of a thousand weighs more than one carat.

Diamond Facts 4

- Even though the U.S. only accounts for less than one percent of total global gemstone production, America buys more than half of the world’s gem quality diamonds – making it the world’s largest diamond market. (Consumers in the United States alone purchased nine billion dollars worth of loose gem-quality diamonds in 2001.)

- Australia produces the most diamonds by volume.

Diamond Facts 5

- The world’s only diamond mine open to the public is the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas – a dig-for-fee operation for tourists and rock hounds.

- Since 1906, more than 70,000 diamonds have been discovered in Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, including the forty point two three carat “Uncle Sam Diamond” – the largest diamond ever found in the U.S. (it was discovered in 1924.)