Black Diamonds

A black diamond, or carbonado, is much younger than other fancy colored diamonds. There are two explanations for the origins of black diamonds. 3.5 billion years ago, carbon atoms were squeezed into crystals in the infernally hot dense mantel under the earth's surface. Through volcanic eruptions, black diamonds reached the earth's surface between 100 million and 1.1 billion years ago.

Stephen Haggerty, geology professor at the University of Massachusetts, believes that carbonados (which are almost exclusively found in Africa) come from a meteorite."Billions of years ago distant exploding stars rich in carbon produced dense clumps of diamonds from the shock waves and pressures," he writes.

Black diamond is significantly more rare than colorless diamonds, colorless diamonds have continue to be the mainstay symbol for marital love. The darkest color sensation evident to the eye and the mind. A non-spectral color the opposite of white, it is also a neutral color lacking saturation yet having a measurable range of lightness.

Black is inherently dull in tone, yet individual black colors can vary in tone, resulting in pale (charcoal) black, dull (ink) black and bright (gun metal) black, all having weak saturation. Popular names for different mixtures of black are charcoal, gunmetal, ink, jet, midnight, onyx and pitch.

A black variety of diamond, found in Brazil, and used for diamond drills. It occurs in irregular or rounded fragments, rarely distinctly crystallized, with a texture varying from compact to porous.

Some of the denser, less flawed carbonado can be polished, but usually makes stones with badly flawed surfaces. In addition, much of it is gray or dark gray rather than black, which tends to make it even less attractive.

There are many other fancy colored diamonds which are far more attractive. Here is the information about other fancy colored diamonds.