One of the most gorgeous and rare varieties of diamonds is the blue diamond. This unique stone comes in a wide variety of blue shades, including a grayish-blue, violet-blue, and greenish-blue. Due to their rarity, they are one of the most valuable diamonds on the market. They get their color from a mixture of nitrogen and the element boron. 

How Blue Diamonds are Formed

Blue diamonds are formed over billions of years just beneath the earth’s surface. These diamonds have also been able to help scientists understand what is going on inside of the earth. 

Australian and American geologists and gemologists have done studies on these gems and have found that the boron that gives them their unique color can also be found on the ocean floor. This finding is incredibly important because it gives scientists a clue about how the Earth is recycling its layers as it ages.

“It’s like a continuous conveyor belt that just keeps going for hundreds of millions of years,” Lars Stixrude, the head of Earth sciences at University College London, told Scientific American. He continued, “What happens at these levels is what drives the formation of plate tectonics and volcanoes, and the composition of our atmosphere. It’s the unseen engine. Everything that we see on the surface is a result of what’s happening below.”

The World’s Most Famous Blue Diamonds

The Blue Moon diamond was sold for a record-breaking price of $48.5 million in November 2015, making it the most expensive diamond to ever be sold at auction. This jawdropping stone weighed 29.6 karats in its rough state and was soon cut into a beautiful cushion shape. One of the stone’s most unique features is that it glows a reddish color when it is exposed to ultraviolet light.

The stone was purchased by Joseph Lau, a billionaire from Hong Kong. He gifted the diamond to his daughter, who was just 7 years old at the time. He renamed it after her, calling it the Blue Moon of Josephine. 

The most famous blue diamond is the Hope Diamond. Some believe there’s a curse tied to the stone, but that seems to be just an old wives tale. The stone is believed to have been discovered in India in the late 17th century. It once belonged to King Louis XIV but was stolen during the French Revolution. 

In 1958, the stone was donated to the Smithsonian by famed jeweler Harry Winston, 9 years after he acquired it. The stone is valued at over $250 million. 

Ralph Mueller and Associates can help you sell your diamond jewelry. We’ve been in business serving the Valley of the Sun since 1983, and our GIA-certified gemologists have over 60 years of combined experience. Call us at 480.949.9299 to learn more.