An ellipse - determine blue diamond weighing20.46 caratsis one of the rarest in the worldly concern . describe the Okavango Blue Diamond , it was discovered at Orapa mine in Botswana , and it holds many secrets about our Earth in its peculiar azure hue .
“ From the first moment we ascertain the diamond , it was decipherable we had something very extra , ” said Marcus ter Haar of Okavango Diamond Company in astatement . “ Everyone who has viewed the 20 - carat polished diamond has marveled at its alone coloration , which many see as unlike any blue stone they have seen before . It is incredibly unusual for a stone of this color and nature to have come up from Botswana – a once - in - a - lifetime uncovering . ”
The rhomb is thought to have come from around 668 km ( 415 mile ) below the ground , reportsPopSci . This depth is a station where atomic number 5 is n’t that common , and yet the Okavango diamond is full of it . It contains more boron than nitrogen , an element that ’s far more mutual in the environment and typically holds the majority portion of most rhombus .
The uncut Okavango Diamond.Image credit: Okavango Diamond Company
Somewhat poetically , Okavango ’s blue air is marry to the big blue , as it ’s thought B was able to make it so deep into the Earth as a issue of architectonic plate colliding , sending one underground and necessitate B from the ocean with it . All of this happened a coolthree billion long time ago . It ’s a process jazz as subduction and one we ’re learning more about through rare and peculiar gems like the Okavango blue diamond .
It was declared a “ once - in - a - lifetime uncovering ” following its breakthrough by the government - possess Okavango Diamond Company ( ODC ) in Botswana . As a pugnacious Oliver Stone , it weighed 41.11 carats , but as a cutting off diamond , it ’s now graded as a character Bachelor of Laws “ Fancy Deep Blue ” and an Oval Brilliant Cut , one of the high polished color classification a gamy ball field can be awarded .
These stones are only retrieve in certain mine across the world , and it ’s because the gems here share a geological account that contributed to their colouration . Diamonds are typically colourless as uniting of carbon copy atom , but impurities can give them unlike colors .
The diamond in its polished form.Image credit: Okavango Diamond Company
Coloreddiamondsare rare , representing about0.01 percent – one in 10,000 – of infield mined across the satellite . Blue , pinkish , unripened , violet , orangish , and loss are the rare of them all , while jaundiced and brown are a bit more coarse .
The title of the humans ’s most expensive diamond may be about to go to a pink lump o ’ carbon call in the Lulo Rose . Like the Okavango diamond , it come from a mine where several other rock music of the same hue have been discovered , but here it ’s the outcome of continental stretching and the occasionaldiatremespurting them out on the aerofoil .
We ’re learn more and more about rhomb organization and distribution as time goes on , and a late discovery about how theytravel to the surfacemay assist us find them . Of course , if you ca n’t find oneself one , you’re able to always beturned into one .
