Articles and News

Carlsbad, CA—An emerald theme ties together several articles in the Winter 2016 issue of GIA’s peer-reviewed journal Gems & Gemology (G&G). The issue also covers a new source of Vietnamese danburite, a visit to the gem deposits of Mozambique and many more breakthroughs in the world of gems. The issue is now available in print, and online with exclusive video content. 

G&G’s cover story by GIA’s Andrew Lucas and coauthors, “Jaipur, India: The Global Gem and Jewelry Power of the Pink City,” examines Jaipur’s role as a colored stone cutting and jewelry manufacturing center. Renowned as a modern emerald cutting center, Jaipur has been a hub of jewelry craftsmanship since Jai Singh II founded the Rajasthani capital in 1727. Now the maharaja’s city is a global powerhouse of jewelry design, manufacturing and retail, fusing traditional Indian design with a Western aesthetic to reach the global market through innovative online retail and television shopping networks. The issue’s next article by Drs. Karl Schmetzer, H. Albert Gilg and Elisabeth Vaupel, “Synthetic Emeralds Grown by Richard Nacken in the Mid-1920s: Properties, Growth Technique, and Historical Account,” explores an early frontier of gem synthesis.

Until recently, danburite was an underappreciated gem, but new sources are bringing this attractive yellow stone to a larger audience. In the third feature, a team of researchers led by Dr. Le Thi-Thu Huong from the Hanoi University of Science characterizes a promising find of gem-quality danburite from Yen Bai Province, Vietnam. The final article provides a tantalizing look into the micro-world of emeralds. A wall chart featuring photomicrographs by inclusion specialists Nathan Renfro, John Koivula, and Shane McClure illustrates some of the internal features of natural, treated and synthetic emeralds.

The issue also contains a GIA field report on the latest developments in northern Mozambique, including the Montepuez ruby deposit and new discoveries of high-quality tourmaline and pink spinel. The regular Lab Notes section includes entries on the largest near colorless CVD- and HPHT-grown synthetic diamonds seen to date, while Gem News International highlights unusual tourmaline from Afghanistan, a new sapphire rush in Madagascar and trapiche-type sapphire from Tasmania. G&G’s Micro-World column features a chalcedony containing more than a dozen clear hexagonal quartz windows, an iridescent ferropericlase inclusion in a diamond that might indicate a “superdeep” origin for its host and a synthetic quartz crystal intentionally seeded with garnet inclusions.

Additional details about G&G, full articles, more in-depth coverage, hundreds of additional photos, and exclusive video footage are available on GIA’s website at http://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research.