Figure 1. Top left: Rubies are mined in a mango orchard in Channapatna, India. Top right: This 15 kg rough ruby is from Subramaniam, in the Indian state of Karnataka. Photos by Pooja Shirole. Bottom ...

GIA offers many opportunities for students to receive a scholarship. Scholarship offerings are made available to assist eligible students in reducing their financial burden and focusing on completing ...

Diamonds have a long history as a premier gemstone—a natural consequence of their beauty, rarity, and superlative physical properties such as extreme hardness. Diamonds that are mined for use as ...

Descending into Peshawar for the first time, a foreign tourist might be surprised to learn that amid the clutter of buildings in this historical city lies an important gem trading center. This market ...

Gem-quality synthetic or laboratory-grown diamonds are more available in today’s jewelry marketplace than ever before, causing both interest and concern about lab-grown diamonds and whether ...

Vietnam is a land of great diversity and beauty. From the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City to the beauty of Hạ Long Bay and Hoi An (both UNESCO World Heritage Sites), there are innumerable places ...

Carbon is one of the most important elements on our planet, which led the Geological Society of London to name 2019 the Year of Carbon. Diamonds are a main host for carbon in the deep earth and also ...

North America has a long history of natural pearling owing in part to its very diverse and rich freshwater mussel resources. After the Civil War pearl jewelry gained greater popularity in the United ...

This raspberry-and mint-colored tourmaline—nicknamed the “Steamboat”—is one of the world’s finest and most valuable mineral specimens. Photo by Duncan Pay ...

A handful of black opal harvested at the world capital of fine black opal, Lightning Ridge. Photo by Vincent Pardieu/GIA. Opal was discovered in Lightning Ridge in the late 1880s, but its value was ...

Originally published in GemGuide in 2016, this comprehensive series examines the quality factors that influence the value of colored gemstones, with a specific emphasis on the role cut quality plays ...

Gem inclusions are mineral crystals or cavities filled with fluid and/or gas that occur in a host gemstone. Many gems contain microscopic inclusions (ranging in size from >1 mm down to submicroscopic ...