the.com/zircon
the cheap diamond stand-in that's actually older than the diamonds it imitates
means A naturally occurring zirconium silicate mineral, prized as a gemstone and often used as a colorless diamond substitute when cut and polished.
from From German 'Zirkon,' which traces back through earlier forms to the Persian 'zargun,' meaning 'gold-colored' — a fitting name for a stone that often glows in warm honeyed tones. That same Persian root is also the likely ancestor of 'jargoon,' an old gem-trade name for pale zircon. The element zirconium, isolated in the early 19th century, was in turn named after the mineral, not the other way around.
- oldest mineral
- some crystals are 4.4 billion years old
- time capsule
- traps uranium, letting scientists date Earth itself
- not cubic zirconia
- natural gem, not the lab-made knockoff
- name origin
- from Persian for golden-colored
- survivor
- outlasts the rocks that birthed it
hyacinth stones — heat-treated zircons from cambodia that were mistaken for diamonds in jewelry until gemological testing revealed them around 1920
jack hills zircons — 4.4 billion year old zircon crystals from western australia, among earth's oldest known minerals
baddeleyite inclusion zircons — zircons containing baddeleyite inclusions found in sri lanka, prized for their color-change properties under different lighting