The authors recently studied a 1.29 ct natural Fancy Intense orangy yellow diamond containing a pale grayish green mineral inclusion, identified by Raman spectroscopy as omphacite. This inclusion was surrounded by several fractures, which together had the appearance of a hummingbird in flight (see above).
Omphacite is a sodium-rich variety of clinopyroxene derived from eclogite, a mantle rock formed through high-pressure and high-temperature metamorphism of subducted oceanic crust. Consequently, this small, hummingbird-shaped inclusion reveals the recycling of crustal material into the deep earth millions or billions of years ago.
Matthew F. Hardman is a research scientist, and Mei Yan Lai is a metrologist, at GIA in Carlsbad, California.
The authors recently studied a 1.29 ct natural Fancy Intense orangy yellow diamond containing a pale grayish green mineral inclusion, identified by Raman spectroscopy as omphacite. This inclusion was surrounded by several fractures, which together had the appearance of a hummingbird in flight (see above).
Omphacite is a sodium-rich variety of clinopyroxene derived from eclogite, a mantle rock formed through high-pressure and high-temperature metamorphism of subducted oceanic crust. Consequently, this small, hummingbird-shaped inclusion reveals the recycling of crustal material into the deep earth millions or billions of years ago.
Matthew F. Hardman is a research scientist, and Mei Yan Lai is a metrologist, at GIA in Carlsbad, California.