Diamond
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Diamonds are very rare gemstones. They are referred to as womens' best friends. Many of them are clear, but some of them have colors, like yellow, red, blue and pink. Big diamonds are very rare, and are worth a lot of money. This is because a diamond is very useful - it is very hard and it spreads the light very well. There are natural and synthetic diamonds. The earth makes natural diamonds. People make synthetic diamonds.
Diamonds are actually made of carbon, the same chemical element as graphite, fullerene, and coal. But diamonds are very hard and in crystalline form. Diamonds are the hardest of all materials found normally on earth.
Because many diamonds are beautiful, people make jewelry using them. They are the rarest of stones and some people will do anything to get their hands on them. Because diamonds are very hard, they are sometimes used to cut hard things, or to grind things so they are very smooth. In fact, the only thing hard enough to cut a diamond is another diamond.
Diamonds are very effective electrical insulators, but also very good conductors of heat.
Diamonds are made deep in the earth, where there is an intense amount of pressure and heat that makes the diamond form. (This makes the diamond a metamorphic rock.) Sometimes magma (very hot, liquid rock deep in the earth) having diamonds will come near the top of a volcano. People find diamonds where volcanoes were a long time ago. Sometimes people find diamonds on the top of the ground. But in places like South Africa, they must dig deep down into a diamond mine to get diamonds. Diamonds were first found in India.
De Beers is the leader of the diamond industry. As well as Pangea Diamond Fields of South Africa.
