Trip to the Royal Ontario Museum

ROM

Last Friday was the trip to the Royal Ontario Museum.

 

 DIAMOND

Diamond has remarkable optical characteristics. Because of its extremely rigid lattice, it can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron and nitrogen. Combined with wide transparency, this results in the clear, colorless appearance of most natural diamonds. Small amounts of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) color diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (lattice defects), green, purple, pink, orange or red. Diamond also has relatively high optical dispersion (ability to disperse light of different colors), which results in its characteristic luster. Excellent optical and mechanical properties, combined with efficient marketing, make diamond the most popular gemstone.

PEARL

Pearls are unique among gemstones because they are produced by a living organism and require no polishing or faceting. Some species of both freshwater and saltwater mollusks produce layers of nacre (mother-of-pearl) that built up to produce a lustrous pearl.

 

CERUSSITE

Cerussite is a carbonate mineral, and at 896 carats, this is the largest cut gem of this mineral in the world. Its dispersion (or fire) is more intense than a diamond's. Disperson is seen as the rainbow of colours visible as one moves around the stone.

This is one of the ROM's iconic objects. Be sure not to miss the video about this rare gemstone located to the left of the entrance to this gallery.