Why are green diamonds green? It’s not an easy question to answer due to their incredible rarity. But after examining over 50,000 naturally colored greenish diamonds, including more than 9,000 pure green diamonds in the lab in the past decade, GIA scientists have confirmed that many of them got their color from exposure to radioactive minerals and fluids in the earth’s crust. Over thousands to millions of years, radiation produced by the decay of isotopes of elements such as uranium and thorium (present in minerals or dissolved in geological fluids) changed the diamond's structure by displacing carbon atoms to create vacant atomic positions. These vacancies caused the diamond to absorb the red part of the light, while nitrogen-related defects often found in natural diamonds absorb the blue part of light; this combination allows primarily green light to be seen. This particular beauty is the 5.03 carat Aurora Green diamond. Graded Fancy Vivid Green by GIA, it is one of the most famous green diamonds in the world and is currently owned by Chow Tai Fook. Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group
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