Gemstones And How They Recieve Their Color

To begin, gemstones are a precious stone that can be cut and used as a piece of jewelry. These stones differ in color, size, and shape. Even though a numerous amount of people know what gemstones are, why they have certain color remains a mystery to many. This paper will be informing the reason to why gemstones have differing colors, and how they are led to recieve these colors. First of all, even though gemstones are known for their color, some gemstones are colorless in their pure form (NA, 2014). While being colorless in their pure form, these gemstones are not always colorless, this means that the color of the gemstone comes from the impurities within their structure (NA, 2014). For example, diamonds and topaz are both colorless in their pure form but can become colored due to impurities inflicted upon the stone’s structure (NA, 2014). To conclude, some gemstones are naturally colored while some are colored due to impurities within their structure.

As an example, both rubies and sapphires are made up of aluminum and oxygen. The color in rubies is caused by chromium ions replacing aluminum ions in certain locations throughout the gemstone, while the color in sapphires is caused by titanium and iron ions replacing aluminum ions in locations in the gemstone (NA, 2014). This means that gemstones can have the same chemical composition and still differ color wise, because of the different ions replacing other ions that are already in the gemstone. Finally, different chemicals within gemstones cause different colors which explains why certain gemstones are colored the way that they